The Help (2011)

• Year: 2011
• Released: 10 Aug 2011
• Country: United States
• Adwords: Won 1 Oscar. 79 wins & 121 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454029/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/The_Help
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-help
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Drama
• Runtime: 146 min
• Writer: Tate Taylor, Kathryn Stockett
• Director: Tate Taylor
• Cast: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer
• Keywords: based on novel or book, 1960s, racism, writer, exploitation,

	8.1/10
	62/100
	76% – Critics
	89% – Audience

The Help Storyline

The time, the early 1960’s, the place, Jackson, Mississippi. Eugenia Phalen – Skeeter to her friends and family – has just graduated from Ole Miss and has returned home in part to take care of her seriously ill mother. Unlike her female friends and colleagues who used their Ole Miss time solely to find a husband, Skeeter, who has never dated or had a boyfriend despite wanting romance in her life, strives primarily for a career, either as a serious journalist or editorialist. In Skeeter’s social circle, the family servants, called “the help”, are exclusively black. The female servants do the cooking and cleaning, but their primary responsibility is child-rearing. The servants get passed down within families from generation to generation, so the child that they raised ultimately becomes the boss. Fifty-year-old Aibileen Clark is one such servant, who works for Skeeter’s easily influenced friend, Elizabeth Leefolt. Skeeter asks Aibileen to help her with her newly acquired job, answering a housekeeping advice column. However, incidents that happen around Skeeter, including her mother seemingly being less than forthright about what happened to their own now absent female servant, the elderly Constantine Jefferson, who raised Skeeter and who Skeeter loved like a mother, make Skeeter come to the decision to write about the experiences of the black female servants in relation to their. Stain, a senior editor with Harper & Row in New York, approves the concept, but she knows that Skeeter getting the servants to talk, which Skeeter ultimately discovers is against the law in Mississippi, will be difficult if not impossible. L, the first and only servant who Skeeter asks, initially refuses Skeeter’s request. But incidents around Aibileen ultimately get her and her best friend, Joe Swanson, who has long worked for the Walters family and now works for the daughter Hilly Holbrook, to talk to Skeeter on the sly about their experiences. One of those incidents involves Hilly’s “Home Help Sanitation Initiative”, which would ban any black servant from using their white employer’s washroom. Minny’s experiences also include those with Celia Foote, a young woman new to the area who has never had servants, who is now married to Hilly’s old boyfriend Johnny Foote, and who is shunned by Hilly and her social circle for supposedly cheating with Johnny while he and she were still dating. Even if Harper & Row or any other firm publishes the book, Skeeter by association any servant who helped her may have a continued rough road ahead in overcoming the resulting wrath, especially by Hilly and her type.

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The Help Movie Reviews

Well-acted, emotionally satisfying human drama

There have been a number of films about the Deep South during the Civil Rights era, mostly (“Mississippi Burning” and “Ghosts of Mississippi” being examples) concentrating on the political struggle for equality. “The Help” is a recent film which brings a slightly different approach to this period, concentrating on the relationship between well-to-do white Southerners and their black maids.

Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is a young white woman from a wealthy family in Jackson, Mississippi. She has ambitions to make a career in writing and journalism, and plans to write a book about the experiences of black maids (referred to as “the help”) working for white families. Unlike most of her friends, Skeeter is a liberal on racial issues and is horrified by the bigoted views which she has heard other white women express, often quite openly in front of their black servants. She hopes that her book will help to expose this sort of prejudice, but finds that no maids are willing to be interviewed.

Eventually, however, two maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, come forward. Both have good cause to be dissatisfied with their employers, especially Minny who has not only been sacked but also falsely accused of theft. Minny’s employer Hilly is a particularly unpleasant individual, with an obsession with forcing black maids to use separate toilet facilities from the families they work for. The real reason for Minny’s sacking was that she used the family’s indoor bathroom rather than use an outside toilet during a thunderstorm. (One thing I have never understood why people like Hilly, who obviously has a poisonous dislike of all black people, did not simply employ a white maid; perhaps they could not find any white women willing to work for the low wages that black maids were paid).

Some films with a “civil rights” theme, “Mississippi Burning” being an example, have a male-dominated cast, but “The Help” is very much a “women’s film” with all the main roles, both heroines and villains, being taken by women. There is an attempt to give Skeeter a boyfriend, but their brief friendship- it never really deserves the name “romance”- fizzles out when he disapproves of her book and of her views on the race question. With that exception, all the male actors play very minor roles.

With the exception of Bryce Dallas Howard from “The Village” and Viola Davis, who greatly impressed me in “Doubt”, most of the leading actresses in the film were faces I had never seen before. (I must admit that I did not recognise Howard, here a brunette although normally a redhead). I understand that Jessica Chastain actually made seven feature films in 2011- a quite remarkable work-rate for a modern actress- but this is the only one I have yet seen. Chastain plays Celia Foote, Skeeter’s only ally among Jackson’s housewives. Although Celia’s husband is from the city’s wealthy elite, she herself is from a working-class background, which means that the likes of Hilly despise her as poor white trash who has got above herself. Although historically many poor whites were just as racist as rich ones, if not more so, Celia’s experience of being on the receiving end of bigotry makes her a much more liberal employer. (Minny goes to work for her after being sacked by Hilly).

Chastain’s is one of a number of excellent performances in this film; the others come from Emma Stone as Skeeter, Davis (even better here than she was in “Doubt”) as Aibileen and Octavia Spencer as the sharp-tongued Minny, a woman determined to fight back against prejudice. (Spencer won a “Best Supporting Actress” Oscar).

I would have a couple of criticisms of the film. Howard as Hilly, like some of the other actresses playing the snooty society matrons, plays her character rather too much as a one-dimensional stereotype, the snobbish upper-class bitch. The sub-plot involving Minny’s chocolate pie seemed out of place, the sort of vulgar humour which would be more at home in a Farrelly Brothers gross-out comedy than in a supposedly serious film. I would not, however, agree with the criticism some have made that the film demeans African-Americans by showing them as dependent upon whites for their emancipation. It is the black characters here who display real courage in bringing their working conditions to public notice, far more so than does Skeeter. She risks nothing worse than losing the friendship of a few people she never cared for in the first place; they risk the loss of their jobs and their livelihoods, and possibly also violence from white racists.

Despite my criticisms, I felt that overall “The Help” was an excellent film- a well-acted, emotionally satisfying human drama with some powerful acting performances, and one which shed an interesting light on this period of American history. 8/10

Some really nice acting here….

While “The Help” has received TONS of great press and a ton of SAG and other awards, I am also aware that there is some controversy concerning the film. Some people have felt that the film was a bit paternalistic–as it might be interpreted as yet another story of a rich, enlightened white lady going out to help all the downtrodden black folk. I am just not sure if I could see this or not–especially as the black women in the film end up showing LOTS of strength during the course of the film. BUT, I am also a white guy–and it’s not fair for me to automatically brand the film one way or another. Just be aware that there are a few who resent the idea of this film.

I could discuss the plot, but LOTS of other reviewers have discussed this. So instead, let’s talk about what I liked and didn’t like. I liked the acting. The problem, however, is that giving any of these actresses awards is tough as it’s such an ensemble cast. I can truly understand why the Screen Actor’s Guild chose to award ALL the cast a joint award. The direction was very nice and the movie was well filmed. The script was also very nice–and quite inspiring. My quibbles are VERY small—very, very small. I felt that a few characters were a bit one-dimensional (particularly the lead villainess). Also, the ending of the film seemed to drag out a bit and wrapping it up a bit sooner. It wasn’t a bad ending–but tightening would have heightened the overall emotional impact.

So my advice for you is to see this film. While I still think “Hugo” is the best nominated film this year, I can see the merit in “The Help” winning and “The Artist” sure seems to have a lot of momentum. So, do yourself a favor and see all three–all three are terrific.

Great funny human story

It’s ’60s Mississippi. Skeeter (Emma Stone) is an independent girl who returns from college determined to become a writer. She is tired of all the traditions people continue to maintain while the world outside is changing. When outrages keep piling on, she asks the housekeepers to tell their stories.

This is a humanistic film. It has eye opening insights into the southern culture of that time. It has shocking scenes and funny scenes… and shocking funny scenes. The best part of this film was the introduction of so many great actresses to the world. This was a great showcase of Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain.