Based on the best seller by Kathryn Stockett and adapted and directed by her childhood friend Tate Taylor, The Help is a personal film that is affecting in its depiction of social injustice in the treatment of black females who served as nannies and maids in the Old South during the turbulent 1960’s. As an ensemble piece, it features a host of memorable, Oscar caliber performances.
A black female, Aibileen (Viola Davis), in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960’s relates a story of life during that period where white families relied on black housekeepers to cook, clean and even raise their white children. These housekeepers in effect became second mothers to these children and did so for generations. Aibileen works in one such household, as does her combative friend, Minny (Octavia Spencer), who works for the stern Hilly (grandly played for nastiness by Bryce Dallas Howard). Fresh from college, Skeeter (Emma Stone) has a reunion of sorts with her old friends (including Hilly) from the community. Absent is the local outcast, Celia (Jessica Chastain), who is shunned by the group. Dreaming of being a writer, Skeeter has been curious about the life of these house servants and the injustices and humiliating treatment they must face that border on outright racism that has been passed down from family to family. Even as a child, Skeeter has fond memories of her own housekeeper Constantine (Cicely Tyson) who left one day under mysterious circumstances. Encouraged by her publisher, she decides to write a book based on the experiences of these servants. Under the fear of being discovered and fired (or worse), one by one these black women come forth to tell their stories. When civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, is murdered, it creates a firestorm of violence as these women risk everything to get the truth in print, and the results will forever alter their lives.
As a chronicle of a lesser known civil rights issue and injustice, this film offers some interesting insights into a modern form discrimination. While most of the white community is portrayed as villains and almost caricatures, perhaps that’s just the point: that such a backwards culture existed not that long ago. There are a number of subplots including the attempts to set up Skeeter on a blind date and Celia’s awkward attempts hide her domestic inadequacies from her husband by hiring a maid. Then there is the fate of Skeeter’s Constantine that is heartbreaking.
As much as the acting is superior across the board, the film does not quite work as a whole as well as one would hope. The narrative seems a bit uneven so things don’t flow smoothly from scene to scene. It’s the only thing that keeps the film from being even better than it is. In a way the parts or scenes are better than the whole, and many of those scenes are quite good and authentic. Despite its serious subject, the film does have its humorous moments especially in the infamous confrontation between Minny and Hilly where justice is served! It is the highlight of the film.
There are any number of performances that shine particularly Davis (a standout), Spencer, Howard, Chastain, and Stone. Even Sissy Spacek has a witty, offbeat role as an elderly mom at odds with her daughter Hilly. But it’s the film’s moments that will stay with you; they buoy The Help into our hearts.
***1/2 of **** stars
No comments:
Post a Comment