Butter
Butter Image
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Metascore
40 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 23 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 12 Ratings

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  • Starring: Ashley Greene, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, Ty Burrell, Yara Shahidi
  • Summary: A tale of competition at its most cut-throat, "Butter" surveys the raw ambition of Laura Pickler, the wife of Bob Pickler, Iowa's long-reigning champion butter carver. For 15 years, Laura has relished her high-profile role as the beautiful, loyal helpmate to her affable, artistically gifted husband. But when Bob is pressured to retire and allow someone else a chance at glory, an indignant Laura decides to enter the competition herself. She is first in line on sign-up day, only to see her odds of victory fall below 100% with the arrival of an unlikely yet formidable contender: 10-year-old Destiny, the African-American foster child of local couple Julie and Ethan. And that's not all. Bob's would-be mistress, bad-girl stripper Brooke also declares her candidacy, as does his #1 fan, Carol-Ann. Facing three opponents, mocked by her stepdaughter Kaitlen and furious with her husband, Laura resolves to do whatever it takes to win. And if that means resorting to sabotage – and recruiting her dim-witted former boyfriend Boyd as a co-conspirator – then so be it. (Radius-TWC)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 23
  3. Negative: 8 out of 23
  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    Oct 5, 2012
    70
    Butter might have been a dark comedy; here, the humor is twisted but the world is bright as can be. Conservatives and liberals alike take a licking, and yet the art of butter carving emerges unscathed.
  2. The Guardian
    Reviewed by: Catherine Shoard
    Sep 19, 2012
    60
    There's something about this film's churn of goo and grit that lingers ambivalently, difficult to digest.
  3. The Playlist
    Reviewed by: James Rocchi
    Oct 6, 2012
    50
    With both Garner and Shahedi providing voice-over, the small-town stakes and the big thematic ideas, Butter feels like someone trying to create the lemonade tang and quenching zest of, say, Alexander Payne's "Election."
  4. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Scott Bowles
    Oct 7, 2012
    38
    It's been a long time since a movie wasted this much talent.

See all 23 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 2 out of 3
  1. DTDunn
    5
    What starts as a mildly assuming farce, devolves into a pedestrian trudge to the long awaited finish line. The bar for comedy is often set awfully low. In the case of this film, they barely cleared the bar.… Expand
  2. GreatMartin
    3
    One of the many amazing things about movies is that it can take you from a rainy, no beach, Columbus holiday to a butter sculpture contest at the Iowa State Fair. tA wife, Laura Pickler (Jennifer Garner), of the ma, Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell), who won it for 15 years in a row and has been sort of pushed not to enter this year, finds herself in a … Expand
  3. Spanky
    1
    Just another excuse for Hollywood to mock middle class white people in flyover country. The only wise and profound person was an 11-year-old token black child. They even managed to rope in Hugh Jackman to mock God and praying.… Expand

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