Review of The Help (2011) by John E — 21 May 2013

A moving and well paced watch based around the civil rights era of 1960's America, and yes, it is guilty of glossing over the bigger picture , however it is also a very personal and touching story about the miss treatment of African Americans within a small, stuck up, pretentious and superficial Mississippi town.

Emma Stone delivers as always and this might contribute to the fact that she didn't receive any accolades for the part. Although Octavia Spencer was very good, Viola Davis was outstanding, she played, dare I say it, that stereotypical part and was excellent; she was caring, genuine and the spectrum of emotion displayed by her and felt through her as a viewer is wonderful. I still find it so incredible that this sort of time period is so recent in our history and sometimes am perplexed to see how little some sections of the "developed world" had evolved or have even evolved today.

The source material is no doubt excellent, but this film isn't nearly as successful at telling this story if not for the wonderful cast and the chemistry between some of the characters. Very sentimental and I can't shake the feeling of wishing I could have been around then to see would I have the compassion and insight to understand the help's plight. I know movies are tailored in many ways to be relate-able in a generalised way and to say I can relate to this might be a bit arrogant of me. With that said, I worked in a posh, stuck up beach club in the states and was greeted by one member and in response to my question of the status of the members, she replied "oh, very high end, you won't find any jews or blacks here.". To top it of, I was referred to as "the help" at one point, when a member stated how lovely it was for us to come over here, find work and get to eat the leftoevers... bitch!