Butter is a 2011 comedy film directed by Jim Field Smith and featuring an ensemble cast including Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell, Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone, and Hugh Jackman.
It is about a foster child named Destiny (Yara Shahidi) who enters a butter sculpture contest. Bob (Burrell), the contest champion, is asked to step down after a fifteen-year winning streak, prompting his wife Laura (Garner) to enter. Laura and Destiny then compete for first place.
Tropes
- All Love Is Unrequited: Kaitlen who falls in love with Brooke, who wants Bob, who loves his wife Laura.
- Ambiguously Bi: Kaitlen mentions having her heart broken by a guy, and then falls head-over-heels for Brooke after the two have sex, for which Brooke charges Kaitlen. Brooke, in turn, may or may not truly be bisexual, but she is willing to have sex with both men and women as long as money is involved.
- Auto Erotica: Brooke and Bob have sex in the back of a van only to get caught by Laura outside the stripclub.
- Betty and Veronica: Laura Pickler (the Betty) and Brooke (the Veronica) are this over Bob Pickler (the Archie). Though the whole rivalry between the two women stems from Brooke wanting to get revenge against the Pickler family for Bob's "mistreatment" of her and Laura wanting to win the butter sculpting competition.
- Brick Joke: When seducing Bob in the strip club, Brooke says she was raped by her father. Later when she arrives at the Pickler home to collect her money and Bob turns her down, Brooke yells that he is just like her father and leaves.
- Closet Key: Brooke for Kaitlen.
- Control Freak: Laura Pickler
- Country Matters: Brooke drops this to Laura as a major insult as she poses a threat by entering herself into the butter sculpting competition so she could win Bob's affections. Lampshaded by Carol Ann.Brooke: (to Laura) It's on, C**t!Carol Ann: I haven't heard that word since my Dad died.
- Depraved Bisexual: Brooke, who sleeps with both Bob Pickler and his daughter Kaitlen just to get her money.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After Bob rejects her, Brooke says she's going to defecate on his car because of such rejection. Later, she spends a majority of the film trying to humiliate and get back at the Pickler family all because of Bob turning her down and for $600 to $1200 dollars (600 for the dad, 600 for the daughter) he owed her for sex.
- Ensemble Cast
- Food Porn: Seriously though, the butter sculptures just look delicious!
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Both Bob and Laura cheat, though unusually, it's Bob who is portrayed more sympathetically. He cheats because he's unhappy in his marriage and hasn't had sex with his wife in a long time (by her choice). Laura cheats to convince Boyd to help her win a contest.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: The game of "Truth or Dare" Kaitlen initiates with Brooke quickly escalates into sex between the two women. Providing such a eyeful for the male (or even female) audiences watching at home.
- Happily Adopted: Destiny is quite happy with her foster parents, the Emmets, and they eventually adopt her formally.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Kaitlen, for whenever she's having to deal with her overcontroling stepmother, is always wearing headphones around the house with loud explicit rap music blasting through them.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Brooke is a stripper who pole-dances at a strip club and likes to have sex with costumers for money but she is really nice when it comes to the child butter competition runner-up Destiny.
- Hypocrite: Laura begrudgingly reprimands her husband Bob for having sex with a stripper named Brooke but has no ill will towards her own self for committing adultery by having sex with her ex-boyfriend Boyd Bolton in order to get him to falsely testify against her competitor, Destiny.
- It Doesn't Mean Anything: Bob says this to Laura after she caught him cheating on her with a stripper. He admits it was a one time thing and it meant nothing to him. Brooke on the other hand, thinks otherwise...
- It Meant Something to Me: After having sex with Bob, Brooke believes that Bob really loves her. But when she confronts him on it as well as to collect money from him, he denies it and she seeks revenge against the Pickler family.
- After talking about owning an apartment one day with Brooke, Brooke collects her money and leaves, leaving Kaitlen hurt as the sex and time spent together really did mean something to her.
- The Immodest Orgasm: What happens to Kaitlen during her sexual encounter with Brooke and Laura with Boyd at his office.
- Insistent Terminology: Despite having sex with costumers for their money, Brooke still considers herself a stripper.
- Kick the Dog: Just as it seems that Destiny could win the competition, Laura hires Boyd to break in (though Boyd's voiceover prayer says that she doesn't know he's doing it) and melt the child's butter sculpture with a blow torch. That fact that the faces of the mother-child sculpture are melted first doesn't help things either.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Both Kaitlen and Brooke during their short-lived romance as both women dress femininely.
- Love Father, Love Son: Brooke sleeps with Bob Pickler during one strip club entertainment montage (and charges him for it when he doesn't return her "love" for him). Then, in an attempt to get the money from Bob, she breaks into his house where she meets his daughter Kaitlen and has sex with her, causing Kaitlen to develop feelings for her.
- Love Triangle: Brooke/Bob/Laura.
- Ms. Fanservice: Stripper Brooke a.k.a "Tokyo Rose" who struts her stuff into the scene in little to almost nothing. Often wearing short-shorts, stacked with silver jewelry, wears skin-tight clothes that accentuate her curves and highlight her breasts and platform high heels. Then there's the infamous pole dance scene debut. Not to mention she portrayed by Olivia Wilde
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Boyd, despite his attempt to help Laura get her young competitor Destiny disqualified for false "theft", neglects to tell Laura beforehand that he's illiterate therefore unable to read a simple fake letter testifying against Destiny and unable to win.
- One-Word Title
- Parental Incest: During the strip club scene where Brooke is entertaining for a sympathetic Bob, she tells him her father raped her when she was a little girl. Though it's left ambiguous whether or not that story was actually true.
- Promiscuity After Rape: Brooke, though it's unclear whether or not her childhood incest story is true. Possibly being the reasons why she behaves in such inappropriate mannerisms.
- Really Gets Around: Brooke, due to her profession of being a stripper/pole dancer, takes it a step further by engaging in sexual acts with costumers for money.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After hearing Kaitlen talk lovingly about wanting to own an apartment one day with her, Brooke leaves after collecting her $1200 and leaves Kaitlen jilted.
- Seduction as One-Upmanship: Brooke sleeps with the daughter of her rival, Bob Pickler, as part of her revenge scheme against him.
- Serious Business: Butter sculptures.
- Sex Montage: Laura with Boyd and Kaitlen with Brooke.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Brooke wears a pretty dress and heels just before the end of the first butter competition in hopes of winning.
- Shout-Out: Brooke makes a butter sculpture by painting a red "A" in the middle from the The Scarlet Letter.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Brooke gives one to Kaitlen during oral sex just to shut her up and have her promise her money.
- Stalker with a Crush: Brooke becomes one after sleeping with Bob. Though really she just wants her money.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: The song "Bread and Butter" from Hugo plays during the sex montage scene, specifically the lyrics "gonna spread you like butter..." as Laura seduces Boyd and Brooke seduces Kaitlen.
- The Tease: Brooke and Laura, in her own different way.
- Title Drop: Several throughout the film. Also the song "Bread and Butter" by Hugo plays during the sex scenes between Laura/Boyd and Brooke/Kaitlen.
- Wicked Stepmother: Laura is one to her stepdaughter Kaitlen as she is controlling and abusive to both Kaitlen and her father Bob. Laura even says she can't wait once Kaitlen is grown up and moves out so she can bear Bob's children.
