The Help

Film Rundown:

Genre:

Drama

Parental Rating:

R

Director:

Tate Taylor

Starring:

Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer

Runtime:

137

Our rating:

C+

by The Ology Team .

On Aug 11, 2011

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The Help is nowhere near as schmaltzy and stereotypical as how its trailer makes it look, that much I'll say from the get-go. While the story is fiction, adapted from the bestselling 2009 novel by Kathryn Stockett, the circumstances are not. As I'm sure you remember from your high school history textbook, Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s was not a particularly progressive place. When her beloved lifelong nanny mysteriously disappears, recent college graduate and aspiring writer Skeeter (Emma Stone) decides to interview the local black women who have raised entire generations of affluent white children, only to see them turn out as rotten as their parents. While Stone is perfectly cast and more adorable than ever, the heavy lifting lands elsewhere.

Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer carry the film as career maids Aibilieen and Minny, two women whose daunting daily routines have left them with unbearable griefs to carry and countless stories to share. They are the ones taking the real risk in, even anonymously, spilling the beans, and golly do they know it. On the other end of the film's moral spectrum sits Bryce Dallas Howard, doing easily the best work of career thus far as saccharine socialite and community leader Hilly Holbrook. While as homogeneously evil as the protagonists are pure of heart, Hilly is terrifically hatable and makes for a perfect nemesis. In this way, The Help is kind of like Star Wars, but with civil rights instead of lasers.

Frankly, there's tons to like in this film, from the gorgeous sets and costumes to the appropriately indulgent runtime to the authentic sense of a community in the throes of societal upheaval. This is all very serious stuff, and is treated as such, but I guarantee you'll be surprised at the level of deft comedy to be found.

::SPOILER ALERT::

Believe it or not, the second half of The Help mainly concerns itself with a chocolate pie that includes an extra special ingredient... sh*t. I cannot begin to explain how much dramatic mileage the film gets from the baking (and consumption of) the sh*t pie. It is an absolutely crucial part of the plot, and practically the emotional crux of the story. I am not kidding in the slightest.

::SPOILERS END::

It must be mentioned that Jessica Chastain (recently seen in Terrence Malick's leaf porn The Tree of Life) steals each and every scene she's in as the ditzy, buxom, but socially shunned rookie housewife Celia Foote. Her burgeoning relationship with the relentlessly candid Minny is the highlight of the film. First-time feature helmer Tate Taylor, whose directorial career seemingly materialized overnight, instantly proves himself adept at jerking tears and getting laughs left and right. See it. You won't be sorry you did.

SumOlogy: Funny, heartfelt and rich, The Help keeps it old school and shines accordingly.

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