The Help

Movie: The Help

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Based on the book of the same name, this film is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. Skeeter (Emma Stone) is a progressive, intelligent 20-something who recently graduated from college with a journalism degree.  She seems the only one in her circle of friends whose goal in life is not finding a husband and having children.  When one of her best friends, Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) starts talking about the need to have separate bathrooms for the black maids, Skeeter has a light bulb go on in her head.  She decides to write a book from the perspective of the black help – how they are treated, how their life is,…  The story chronicles how she convinces some of the maids to talk to – and provides a look at the life of a black maid, from the maid’s perspective.

My two cents: The book was amazing and this movie is equally amazing. The book and movie have both been criticized for trivializing the plight of blacks in that era.  From my perspective (that of a white man who grew up in an environment that provided almost no contact with blacks) this book and movie provided an eye-opening glimpse into what the cost of racism can be.  The blacks’ total lack of rights was appalling.  The scene that keeps coming back to me was when one of the maids (played by Viola Davis) is pushing a grocery cart down the right side of an isle of a grocery store (which she is only allowed to shop in if she is shopping for white people) and she encounters a white woman pushing a cart.  The only permissible response is for her to duck her head and move out of the way.  I still do not understand the mental process whereby it is considered to be okay for a black made to raise white children from birth, to clean the white people’s houses, to cook meals for white people – but any direct physical contact (such as the touch of a hand) is considered to be taboo.

In any case, the performances were standouts: Emma Stone as Skeeter, Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly, Jessica Chastain at Celia Foote and Allison Janey as Skeeter’s mother; but the two best performances were Octavia Spencer Minnie Jackson and Viola Davis as Aibileen Clarke.  I would love to see this movie nominated for Best Picture Oscar . . .  and I am going to be shocked of Viola Davis does not pull down a nomination for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress.  She was absolutely amazing.

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