The Help (2011)

Based on Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name, The Help was big hit this last summer, filling the need for more substantive fair amid rampaging apes, aliens and super hero's. Set in Jackson, Mississippi during the summer of 1963, The Help stars Emma Stone as Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a recent college graduate returning to her home town with dreams of becoming a writer. Plucked down amid her old friends, now busy-body housewives, and somewhat reeling from the recent, mysterious departure of a beloved servant (Cicely Tyson) who had been in her family's employ for decades, Skeeter can't help but look at 'the help' in a different way.

A ubiquitous army of underpaid black women who cook, clean, and largely raise the children of well off local whites, 'the help' are under- appreciated, and must daily confront the casual, unthinking racism of their employers. It occurs to Skeeter that these women might make an interesting subject for a book, but her attempts to land candid interviews with local housekeepers are uniformly rebuffed. These women fear for their jobs, and know that any honest recounting of their experiences with their white employers will not be flattering. Aibileen (Viola Davis), finally agrees to collaborate with Skeeter, when the family she works for build a small additional bathroom in their house which they force the black woman too use, deeming her unworthy to share the same toilet-set with them. Aibileen meets with Skeeter in secrete and agrees to write down her experiences, on the condition she not be referred to by name in the book. Later Aibileen is joined in working with Skeeter by Minnie Jackson (Octavia Spencer), who has been fired from the employ of Skeeters childhood friend Hily (a delightfully bitchy Bryce Dallas Howard) for supposedly using the family toilet (Hily is in the process of sponsoring an initiative it make it illegal for black servants to use the same toilets as their white employers).

Minnie is a fun character, she has about five children and is trapped in a bad marriage, but she can be a sassy one. When pushed to the limit by Hily's blacklisting Minnie from gaining new employment, she shows up at her old bosses house offering a rather 'unique' pie as a 'peace offering'. Minnie does eventually get employ from one Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain, who I expect we'll be seeing more of). In a big house at the outskirts of town Mrs. Foote is as ostracised and shunned by the women of Jackson as Minnie is, (the busy-bodies wrongly suspect that she is a lose women). In hiring a maid (without her husbands knowing), what Celia is really hoping for is a friend, and her flightiness and practical obliviousness to the expected social norms of her neighbours make her a fun character.

Real history intersects our narrative with the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers right there in Jackson. This is the straw that broke the camels back, and soon there are a plethora of maids willing to speak with Skeeter and help with her book. Elaine Stein (Mary Steenburgen), a New York publisher Skeeter has been trying to get the patronage of, is thrilled by the work Skeeter sends her, and before long her book (where all the characters have pseudos names) is publish anonymously and takes Jackson by storm.

I won't finish it for you, but doubtless the book causes something of a fuss, especially when Hily figures out the book is about Jackson, and contains information that would be very, how shall we say, embarrassing for her should it get out. I was a little leery going in, but this is a great movie, it has an enveloping quality of quality, and at roughly two and a half hours has nary a dull spot. There has been some criticism of the film owing to the old Hollywood convention that the plight of black characters must been seen through the viewpoint of white characters (see Cry Freedom, Mississippi Burning, and even To Kill a Mocking Bird), but the film presents events as much (if not more) through the eyes of its black characters as through its whites. Some criticism might also be directed towards the films arguably 'straw women' construction of most of the white female characters, not to mention the virtual absence of men that makes the male sex look largely like their just going along with the prejudices of their 'woman folk'. But these are small faults, the movie succeeds at doing what it set out to do, and does it in an entertaining way. Davis, Spencer and Chastain give stand out performance, and the reset of the cast are all above average. Though try as they might, Emma Stone can not be made un-cute. One of the best films of last year, and a serious contender for a best actress Oscar.

Great