The 60s: a time of love, freedom, and peace. Unless, of course, you’re black and in Mississippi. Tate Talyor’s, The Help, is a surprisingly great movie to watch. A wannabe writer and newbie journalist, Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), is a bit of a tomboy: she hates wearing dresses, doing her hair, and searching for husbands, except to please her sick mother. She reluctantly attends socialite events, run by Queen Bee Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her minion drones — I mean friends.
Set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, every household has a black housekeeper. Skeeter is kind to the help, while Hilly openly expresses her disdain for the black maids. There are no serious conflicts to start with, except the issue of the help using the same bathrooms as the employers.
The maids themselves, Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), just go about their duties without interfering with their bosses’ peppy lives. Aibileen acts as a surrogate mother for the four-year-old daughter of one of Hilly’s friends, who only has a child because it’s trendy at the moment. Minny keeps the house for Hilly and her mother (Sissy Spacek). Hailed as the best cook in Jackson, Hilly’s mother loves bringing Minny’s special pies to socials and treats her with dignity. Hilly on the other hand, deliberately puts her down, and gets all her friends to have extra bathrooms built specifically so the help don’t touch their own.
Skeeter, disgusted by how the maids are being treated, asks Aibileen and Minny if they would help her write a book: an account from their point of view as a maid about their experiences working for their employers. At first they’re reluctant to do so, but they soon give in after members of the black community are attacked. Lots of work goes into writing this book; from secret (and apparently, illegal) meetings to recruiting other maids and servants to interview, it’s a dangerous affair through and through.
Emma Stone (Easy A, Superbad) is her usual quirky self, but she’s makes a lot less jokes and she stutters more; still, there’s something more heartfelt about her performance. Viola Davis (Eat, Pray, Love) plays the perfect mother, always showing love for the children she takes care of. Davis’ performance as Aibileen was sweet; playing an honest and caring lady seemed to come naturally to her. Octavia Spencer plays a sharp-mouthed mother and abused wife. She’s hilarious, sneaky, and scary; she’s someone you wouldn’t want to cross. Bryce Dallas Howard plays Hilly Holbrook perfectly. She’s sinister and powerful, and she’s someone you easily hate.
The director, Tate Taylor, probably didn’t do very much; the movie was very actor-oriented. Taylor himself is primarily an actor, not a director, starring in Oscar-nominated movie Winter’s Bone. As a director, I don’t think he fares well, but he doesn’t affect the movie any.
The Help is based on Kathryn Stockett’s novel of the same name, a review of which you can read here. I don’t know how the movie compares to the book, but I imagine it was equally as amusing. I thought it was going to be a “blaxploitation” kind of movie, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it was simply a story being told and not making a statement about civil rights. The Help easily brings out different emotions, and it can make you laugh and stare in shock at the same time. It easily sways all the feelings you could possibly have. Who knew the subject of toilets could be so tearful, both outrageous and outrageously funny. The Help is a great movie to watch, so catch it while you can.
The Help is out on DVD today.
