Due to scheduling problems, I was unable to see the comedy Butter starring Jennifer Gardner and Hugh Jackman before its opening in the valley.

The story follows an ambitious woman (Jennifer Garner) who is married to Iowa's reigning butter sculpting champ (Ty Burrell) but decides to enter the race on her own when he retires. She's the shoo-in until an adopted young black girl (Yara Shahidi) discovers she has an uncanny talent for butter-carving and becomes a late-breaking favorite.

To help you make your decision, here are some quotes from from some of the nation’s critics.  First the pros, then the cons.

Here is a selection of pros:

 “Butter is a sassy movie that spreads charm and laughs. And butter.”  Chase Whale: Twitch

“High-calorie fun.”  Marshall Fine: Hollywood & Fine

“It's funny watching an African American girl turn "the white man's burden" on its head.”  Cole Smithey:  Cole Smithey.com

And now the cons:

“A toothless, insufferably smug satire using competitive butter-carving as a weak-tea stand-in for Midwestern politics.”  Sam Adams: AV Club

“Like many comedies about small-town life, "Butter" is smug in its depiction of its unworldly, petty characters.”  Chris Hewitt:  St. Paul Pioneer Press

“About as subtle as a slab of lard served on a slice of ham.”  Roger Moore: McClatchy-Tribune News Service