Review of The Help (2011) by Susans — 13 Aug 2011
The Bottom Line: Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer save this film from being a two-dimensional pat-on-the-back for non-racist white people in the 1960s. Every time the story gets a little too sappy and cut-and-dry, Davis' Aibilene returns to the screen to bring a complexity to the film that I don't think actually exists in the original book.
The film is wildly uneven, I think precisely because of the skilled, seasoned Black actresses' ability to create accurate complexity out of cardboard characters contrasting with much younger, less experienced white actresses unable to the same.
In the end, it succumbs to its movie-long desire to tie a nice bow around a situation that, in 1964 in Jackson, Mississippi, was everything but harmonious.
This review of The Help (2011) was written by Susans on 13 Aug 2011.
The Help has generally received very positive reviews.
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