Film Review: The Help

Director: Tate Taylor

This is a drama based on the popular book of the same name by Kathryn Stockett and has already seen many award nominations for Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain. It was this critical acclaim for the cast that pushed me to watch this film before the Oscar's to see whether the praise was justified. The performances from the three actresses above did raise my expectations somewhat and also left me puzzled as to why Emma Stone was not nominated.

Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark

The film charts the efforts of Eugenia Phelan known as Skeeter (Emma Stone who is largely forgettable) to chronicle the lives of The Help in Jackson, Mississippi. A town still fiercely steeped in racism whilst the rest of America is slowly turning towards equal rights as Martin Luther King Jr amongst others are campaigning in Washington DC. Skeeter first starts getting stories from maid Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis in stoic fashion) but Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer who is excellent although slightly clichéd) finds out and is initially unhappy before deciding to help with the book. The real surprise in the film though is the brittle performance by Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote who plays the understanding trophy wife who is disliked by the wives of the neighbourhood.
It's a very airbrushed view of the deep South in the early 1960's which makes the film seem slightly more light-hearted in tone at times despite dealing with some very difficult issues. A big opportunity was missed to look into why so many people are deeply racist in the town of Jackson, is it nature or nurture? But the worst crime within the film is that the lives of black-woman at the time is distorted and often ignored. Sexual harassment was a huge problem at the time for the hired help but this is completely untouched within the movie. It seemed determined to press home the fact that the main problem they had at the time was raising white children whilst somebody else cared for their own children at home.

Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote is the surprise performance of the movie

With a duration time of 140mins, not enough seems to develop throughout the course of the film. The pace is almost pedestrian at times as we witness woman similar to the Stepford wives discuss very little but the home lives of the maids is only seen in passing. Minny Jackson does manage to produce a rather crude but very hilarious moment at the expense of ones of her employees and I challenge anyone to not feel upset as Aibilene describes what happens to her son. At times it will certainly make you laugh, maybe even make you cry and certainly make you hate what some people stand for.

The article below shows movie titles if they told the truth and the one for The Help couldn't be more accurate when looking at parts of this movie.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2012/feb/03/oscars-2012-mock-film-posters?INTCMP=SRCH#/?picture=385346510&index=1

2/4 some stand out acting performances and touching moments but slow script and two dimensional characters let it down.