The Help MOVIE REVIEW

Being black in a 1960’s Mississippi was kind of a drag.  Unfortunately for the maids in the Tate Taylor film The Help, they are exactly that.  Constantly on the verge of upsetting their white, snooty housemasters, they earned a hard living having to obey the commands of truly racist, prejudiced people.  Fortunately Emma Stone, playing a curly haired aspiring writer, was there to tell their stories to the masses through a hush-hush interview process with some of the maids, to hopefully be published into a book.  That’s basically the gist of it, and the rest is basically an excuse to have an acting showcase (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

Even though the plot was simple and the themes of racism weren’t as hard hitting as they should have been, the cast is so chock full of talented actresses that The Help is an entertaining film regardless.  Emma Stone gives a quite strong performance as the woman on a mission (her mission: a successful printed book, a decent job, and total black desegregation).  Also lining the long list of heavyweights is Bryce Dallas Howard, playing an easy-to-hate maid-owner, Allison Janney, Stone’s sickly mother, Sissy Spacek, Howard’s aging mother, Jessica Chastain as the giddy Celia Foote, Octavia L. Spencer, funny as always playing one of the maids, and best of all Viola Davis.  I really hope she gets an Oscar nod for her role because she really does make the film.  You can feel all of the restrained hurt, anger, frustration, and exhaustion her character faces in her performance.  While the film has way too many emotional scenes, Viola Davis makes each one of them feel real and important.

My biggest complaint is the over-sentimentality of the picture.  It seemed like in every scene someone ended up on the verge of tears.  While the material may call for that, it just made the movie lack a dynamic feel.  There are some nice bits of comedy (the pie joke is great – at least until the film keeps reminding us of it), but I just wish there would’ve been more “action.”  This was a harsh, violent period in America where black people were subjected to some terrible stuff, but the movie kind of glosses over that.  We see touches here and there, and moments of true horror are described, but with what we see in the actual film, I don’t think the stakes were quite high enough for my taste.

I did really enjoy The Help.  The ensemble cast is amazing and although the story isn’t really anything special, it did hold up my interest.  The standouts for me were Viola Davis and Emma Stone - both of whom I hope will see long and successful careers in the future.  If you can get over its sentimentality, it’s a solid picture.

Rating: B-