The Help
The Help is a poignant film about the previously unspoken lives of southern maids who silently fight back against the hardships they endure during the rising civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi. Though many male counterparts will initially feel as though they’ve been dragged to the theatre for an emotional chick flick, their female partners-in-crime need only remind them that one of the movie’s stars is sultry goddess Emma Stone. And though they’ll quickly find out that the movie is more about middle-aged African-American women than angsty 60s coeds, once you’ve got their feet in the door, they’ll be drawn in to an unforgettable story about race relations, courage and love.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbuKgzgeUIU
Played by Stone, aspiring writer Eugenia Phelan, otherwise known as Skeeter, is a frizzy-haired, gangly college graduate hired by a local newspaper to write for a cleaning advice column. The only trouble? As a privileged young woman, Skeeter never had to lift a finger – just like every other white family in the neighborhood, her household had hired help. Not long ago, her own family’s housekeeper Constantine mysteriously left, so Skeeter recruits her friend’s maid Aibileen to assist with the column.
However, this liberal-in-the-making soon realizes how poorly her so-called bridge club friends treat the women who clean their homes and raise their children, and thus blossoms her idea for a controversial yet extremely important book from the point of view of the hired help.
Though Stone is always mesmerizing on screen, it’s her co-stars Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer that steal the show. Davis plays Aibileen Clark, an adoring housekeeper who, despite being treated like a second class citizen by her employers, manages to harbor no ill feelings towards the beautiful little girl she mothers as her own child. Her moving performance will leave many in the audience wishing they’d been raised by someone as unconditionally loving.
As the strong-willed, outspoken maid Minny Jackson, Spencer is both the film’s comic relief and its circulatory system, pumping life into the heart of The Help. After being “let go” by racist queen bee socialite Hilly Holbrook, Minny exacts her revenge in the most unthinkable, and yet not entirely undeserving way, sending the audience into both gasps and titters as she receives her “just desserts.”
From the moment this captivating movie began until the last scene faded to black, I couldn’t peel my eyes from the screen if I tried. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Help earns Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and double nominations in the Best Supporting Actress category for the supremely talented Davis and Spencer.
Having seen the film with diehard fans of the book, I know that while some key moments are left out of the movie, it really captures the essence of author Kathryn Stockett’s story and does her memorable characters justice.
So would I recommend this film? Hell yes. And in honor of Minny Jackson, make sure you complete your night out with a heaping helping of homemade fried chicken – just don’t skimp on the Crisco.
