(Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer,
Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain)
Beautiful performances by
beautiful actresses bring The Help, a bestselling novel, to the big
screen. As a fan of the book, I quite
enjoyed the movie that provided me with two tear jerking moments that the book
didn’t bless me with. Emma Stone plays
the quirky Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan who’s only goal is to be an accomplished
writer and much to her mother’s, played by Allison Janney, detestation not
interested in finding a husband. Skeeter
decides to befriend a maid Aibileen, Viola Davis, to create a true account of
what working for a white woman entails.
While reading the book I wanted
to see how the relationships between two sets of people would be projected into
an on-screen relationship. The
relationship between Skeeter and the woman who raised her, Constantine, was
brought to life brilliantly. At an early
age we see that Skeeter has an unbreakable bond with her maid. The connection between a child and her maid
is crucial and for Skeeter it’s the most loving relationship she has ever had. Another touching relationship was between
Aibileen and the child she raises, Mae Mobley.
Mae Mobley loves Aibileen dearly, because she is the only mother figure
the little girl has in her life. Each of
these relationships involves both a maid and a young girl, showing that love
has no boundaries. (FYI…both of these
relationships were the moments that forced me into tears streaming down my
face.)
The driving force in Jackson, Mississippi to
keep the maids in their “rightful” positions is Miss Hilly Holbrook, played by
Bryce Dallas Howard. Hilly is the woman
who believes “colored people” should be kept separate but equal in every aspect
of the world including bathrooms, which brings about a quite hilarious moment. In both the book and movie Hilly is a snobby,
uptight bitch who thinks she rules the town and everyone that inhabits
Jackson. Hilly is the social pariah, the
woman everyone in town listens to because she holds their reputations in her
perfectly polished hands. Howard brings the
high and mighty Hilly to life portraying her with the ability to make the
audience want to strangle her every time she is on the screen.
Every actress did her part to
bring each of their characters to life, but Octavia Spencer steals the show as
Minny Jackson. Minny is a sassy woman
who doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone and shut her mouth, and that’s
why we love her. Minny protects Skeeter
and the other maids in the story by revealing her own “terrible awful” truth
that she swore she would never tell a soul about. Minny is the comic relief in this serious and
heartbreaking story. Spencer is a star
and it has never been more evident than in this movie.
The Help is a must see movie
that will make you think about what the south was like during the times when
the white population needed the black to survive, yet didn’t give them equal
rights. Although the film doesn’t fully
encompass all the hell the colored people endured at the hands of the white, it
does show just what the problems were in the south and how one person with a
dream can change life in a small way.
It’s hard to believe this kind
of life was being lived just fifty years ago, luckily these attitudes have
changed. The Help is a touching movie
that everyone must see and have in their movie collection.
Always remember…“You is kind.
You is smart. You is important.”
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454029/)
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454029/)
