The Help (2011)

The Help is a film adaptation of a novel by Kathryn Stockett that is already popular and is now growing in popularity thanks to this newly popular movie. She wrote it based on her experiences as a white girl having been raised by a black maid. It is a story about the fear and hatred that was lashed out by so many people during a terrible period in our country's history and more importantly about the courage of the oppressed to continue in their struggle in the hope of a brighter future. It is a very good movie and it is very well made. It features a slew of terrific performances and it is a moving story. I am not entirely convinced it needed to be made, but the point is that it did get made and is quite good.

Since this is a character-driven movie, let's go over all the best ones. First, we have Viola Davis as the featured maid of the picture. She is the first to indulge in letting loose her personal stories to be put into a book written by a concerned white girl. She is the most passionate character in the film, and yet Davis' performance is so quiet, which is the way it should be. There is no escaping the plunge your heart will surely take when she consoles the little girl she watches, whose mother mistreats her. Her mother is played by Bryce Dallas Howard who essentially plays the villain, representing all evil white Southerners in a role so easy to hate, you're a little more than glad she gets what she deserves at one point. Then, taking inspiration from all great tragedies, she never gets her real comeuppance. Such is life. Stealing the show is Octavia Spencer, a powerful presence as the maid who risks everything to deal out some well-deserved medicine in one of the movie's best moments. Finally, we again have the wonderful rising star Emma Stone as the girl who wants change and does her best to get it, completely ignoring the searing eyes of her vicious peers. They all do a wonderful job and I am sure that the loyal fans of the book are getting just what they've always envisioned.

I wonder sometimes about movies like this. The sole thing that makes someone truly racist is in looking at a white person and a black person and separating them as white and black. This movie's whole purpose revolves around this separation, which is, of course, the point. In context of the period, it is a powerful point and it works well as a piece of drama. It is all very careful, though, of tip-toeing around the issue itself, so as not to offend anyone of either race. White people in this movie need just as much empowerment as black people, presumably because the white people want to feel bad for those poor black people, but don't want to actually feel guilty about it. But, whatever. It is irrelevant now to wonder if painful history needs to keep being dug up so much in a "politically correct" world. The point is that we have a really good movie on our hands, regardless of its subject. It is an extremely enjoyable concoction of effective drama, comforting comedy, and fantastic acting. If that's not enough to make a good movie, I don't know what is.

8/10