The Help

When I saw the popularity of this movie, I knew it was going to be nominated for Best Picture. Then a friend of mine said I should see “The Help”. I did so and fully agree with its nomination. The acting in the film was its best quality. The entire cast has won the SAG and it got three acting nominations at the Oscars. The film appears to be well adapted from the book and I don't understand why the screenplay wasn't nominated. The film has a lot of negativity & vulgarity and I can only hope that such problems portrayed in the film/ book were not as bad as they actually were in Jackson, Mississippi. On second viewing, the movie also contains some positiveness. Ever since this film was released however, a lot of movies have been made with similar themes and now we live in a time when activism has become a fad in Hollywood feature filmmaking. "The Help" is better than more recent racism-themed movies because it preceded this activism movement.

I don’t wish to focus too much on the story of “The Help” considering that it is adapted from a novel but rather focus on its adaptation. The negativity I mentioned is apparent at the start of the film but it is there story-wise so as to contrast the victories that happen throughout the movie. If there is one part of this adaptation that affected me the most, it is the portrayal of Hilly Holbrook. I hated her guts in this film. What makes her even more evil is how she treats Celia. The harsh reality is this kind of discrimination still exists in all cultures. If only Dolores Umbridge was just as well portrayed. The character of Skeeter and her back-story is well depicted also. She is established as different from the other well-to-do ladies. At first, Skeeter wants to interview Aibileen about her life mostly because she wants to be successful. Soon however, Skeeter’s good nature allows her to see exactly what her book can mean for the civil rights movement. As the movie progresses, we have to flashback to earlier scenes or plot points that were cut short or not addressed. If this was an invention of the filmmakers in the adaptation of the novel, it was a good choice in terms of drama. The film also depicts the fear and danger that existed in that era such as when Medgar Evers is killed. I also like the side story of Celia and Minny. The scene where the girls playing Bridge hide from Celia is quite ridiculous because their cars are outside. It again shows how silly some people will act on their discrimination. The resolution at the end of the film is well depicted. Mrs. Phelan’s heart is changed for example and she expresses her love & pride for Skeeter. To me, this frees her from much of the guilt of what happened to Constantine. Celia’s husband confronts Minny in gratitude and Minny is assured a job for the rest of her life in a house that will treat her with respect. Not everything turns out happily ever after however. Aibileen is forced to quit her job for example and such a scene is needed in a drama like this. Also, Skeeter is never able to say good-bye to Constantine or get her back. I was hoping that Hilly would get what she deserved by the end of the movie and I was somewhat disappointed but in that type of society, it makes sense that Hilly doesn’t really pay for her atrocities.

As mentioned, the acting in this film is Oscar worthy left and right. Emma Stone was great but Viola Davis was amazing. I first saw Davis in “World Trade Center” but I didn’t realize that it was her playing Aibileen until the movie was over. I probably would not have made the connection at all had I not watched “World Trade Center” the week before. It turns out that Davis has already won two Tony Awards and she was nominated for an Oscar for her eight-minute part in “Doubt”. I was sure she was going to win the Oscar because Meryl Streep had already won two. After seeing "The Iron Lady", I still favored Davis performance much more. The best acting in the whole movie goes Bryce Dallas Howard and I wish that she was nominated. I have seen Howard in a few other films but this is the first time that she really stood out to me. Funny enough, both Stone and Howard have played the Spider-Man character, Gwen Stacy. Octavia Spencer was the original inspiration for the character of Minny in the novel and Spencer also portrayed Minny in the audiobook. It is only fitting that she performs that character on screen. A similar thing happened with “The Da Vinci Code". I applaud Spencer's Oscar win for this film as well as Jessica Chastain's nomination in the same catagory. All the acting in “The Help” was the best I had seen all that year and I predicted that the film would change the careers of all those who stared in this movie. Not only did Stone and Davis win their own Oscars later in their careers, but Spencer has earned two more Oscar nominations herself.

I wouldn’t have expected Chris Columbus and Mark Radcliffe to make a film like this. The acting is superb and the design of the film portrays contrast perfectly and dramatically. The story is well adapted for the big screen but the film also has some offensiveness and pessimism that I feel is quite disturbing. I enjoy “Remember the Titans” a lot more but at least "The Help" has some inspiring moments of its own. When a speaker stands in front of a crowd a delivers a powerful speech about an important subject, it can change the world. When others try to copy the impact of the speech on too many occasions, hoping that the world win change faster, the message ironically loses power because of how many times the same audience has heard the message. I'm not saying that movies should stop preaching the dangers of racism. I wish however that such an important message like the one that "The Help" preaches hadn't become so overdone since then. Audiences might become bored seeing too many dramas like this.

4 Stars