Review of The Help (2011) by Stevenf — 21 Oct 2013

While its subject is the division that changed an era way back in the sixties, 'The Help' manages to offer a safe and optimistic tale out of a difficult and testing time in American history. The film has centred itself around the African-American maids predominantly working in Jackson, Mississippi as they carefully detail their day to day lives working for the white women of the town, they do so through the energetic and openness of Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), who sets out to write a book anonymously to highlight the situations these women endure. This is a definitely a safe film, and while does tend to only touch on some of the ugly and chaotic times of the era, it also seems like this was intentional, instead offering the good that can come out a situation such as this, it is willing to show great emotion while also keeping themes arms length, it delves and paddles its feet slightly on racial abuse but never plunges too deep. Skeeter sets her sights on two maids to begin her book, her backstory showing that she has difficulty fitting into the society she once lived in, these two maids are Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer). As wonderful an actress as Emma Stone is, the film belongs to these tow characters, they could have easily won out the entire show on their own.

The former is really the centre of the story, as she is the first to speak to Skeeter, we are immediately shown the life she leads as she raises the young children of the family she works for, and watches them grow up to be exactly the way their mothers are, We can see from the excellent performance of Davis that Aibileen is tired of being treated like a pet, the leader of the ladies in the social circle is Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the snake of the town, campaigning behind a smile to have separate bathrooms for the maids so as they don't use their own, Minny is the comic relief and hearty force of the film, as she is fired by Hilly and in turn goes to work for the outcast of this social circle, Celia Foot (Jessica Chastain), who treats Minny as an equal, albeit with quite the quirky and unhinged personality to go along with her generosity. Each one of the characters immediately invite us into their lives, Aibileen struggles with a previous tragedy that eventually drives her to talk to Skeeter, considering the risks involved in speaking ill of their employers, bug they aren't always doing that, there are plenty of happy memories, especially Skeeter and her family maid Constantine, a story which also holds a touching and heartbreaking premise. The excellent performances of Davis and Spencer are the hallmarks of this colourful and vibrant setting, it's short on make roles but never feels overly feminine, instead choosing to (inadvertently) have Aibileen as the centrepiece of the show, with Chastains character and the story of Skeeters maid taking a smaller but equally touching subplot. This is happy and moving film that can be a little rough around the edges with some devices belonging in a different film, but the performances of Davis and Spencer are of the highest order, their characters each have a life outside of their jobs which feature prominently but don't overshadow their desire for change, it's a different sort of take on a cruel and often tragic era in history, one which doesn't cover all the holes but certainly fills the relevant ones with humour and heartfelt decency.