MOVIE REVIEW
(Release Date: August 10, 2011)
The Help: Kind, smart, important
* * * * *
"You is kind, you is smart, you is important" is a message that the soft-spoken and hard-working black maid Aibileen (Viola Davis) repeatedly instills in two-year-old Mae Mobley, her latest charge in the white family she is tending after. This line perfectly sums up the film as well. Adapted from Kathryn Stockett's New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, the film version has managed to stay true to the book. Indeed, this movie, and the book it originated from, is a kind, smart and important tribute to the civil rights movement.
It's 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi and segregation of whites and blacks is still in effect. A black maid working for a well-to-do white family was the norm, and their "work" included raising the children straight from birth through to their adolescent years.
Emma Stone (Easy A) is Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a Southern belle who's never really felt a part of the high society crowd she was born and raised into. Her single status and aspirations to become a serious journalist are just two of the oddities that make her stand out from her married-with-kids peers. The other two central characters are black maids played magnificently by Davis (Doubt) in the role of quiet and does-as-she's-told Aibileen and Octavia Spencer as the sharp-tongued Minny.
The premise of the film lies in Skeeter’s idea to write a book based on the experiences of the black maids who, for all intents and purposes, raised most of the white children in the community. Aibileen and Minny get on board with Skeeter's project, agreeing to tell their stories anonymously. The risks involved, however, are grave in 1960s Mississippi where speaking on this subject would most certainly mean being imprisoned and perhaps even murdered.
Although Aibileen keeps silent around her employer and her employer's high society friends, she doesn't hold back in recounting her life as a maid to Skeeter. The same goes for Minny, and eventually the other maids find the courage to also tell their stories.
Once the anonymously penned 'The Help' hits the book shelves, we find ourselves cheering as Jackson's upper-crust society is exposed for their nasty and cruel treatment towards the domestic help.
Another notable mention is the performance given by Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of acclaimed director and former "Happy Days" actor Ron Howard) as Hilly Holbrook, the Southern belle-slash-bigot the audience will love to hate.
The film also has many humorous scenes, many of them involving Sissy Spacek in the role of Mrs. Walters (Hilly's mother), Jessica Chastain as the innocent and likeable beauty Celia Foote who happened to marry rich, and of course, the sassy Spencer in her role as Minny.
Though neither the film nor the book are groundbreaking in their portrayal of the civil rights era, it cannot be denied that this is a story that will touch the hearts and minds of moviegoers.
Check out Kathryn Stockett reading an excerpt from The Help, as well as discussing the book here:
CCG Giveaway Alert!*
Want to win a copy of the book? Find out what we thought of Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel The Help, and how you can win your very own copy!
