The Help

Plot synopsis:
In civil-rights era Jackson, Mississippi, 23-year-old Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone), a recent graduate of the University of Mississippi and an aspiring writer, attends a bridge game at the home of her friend Elizabeth Leefolt (Ahna O'Reilly). Skeeter's girlhood friends have all gotten married and started families, but Skeeter is disturbed to see how they treat their African American maids.Elizabeth's maid, Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), fields a call from "white trash" Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), who wants to help with a benefit being organized by the Junior League. Elizabeth and fellow socialite Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), head of the local Junior League chapter, laugh at Celia's efforts to be accepted, as they don't think she's up to their social standards. (We learn later that Celia's married to Hilly's former boyfriend, which might have something to do with Hilly's attitude.) Celia mentions to Aibileen that she's looking for a maid. After refusing to use Elizabeth's toilet because Aibileen uses it ("they carry different diseases than we do!"), Hilly describes the Home Health Sanitation Initiative she hopes to get passed in the state legislature. The bill would require white-owned homes to have a separate toilet for the Negro "help." This conversation is conducted within earshot of Aibileen.Skeeter has been assigned to write the Miss Myrna housekeeping column for the local newspaper. Because she has never had to do much housework herself, she asks Aibileen for assistance. In addition to doing all the cooking and cleaning for Elizabeth's family, Aibileen is the de facto mother of Elizabeth's toddler daughter, Mae Mobley (Eleanor Henry and Emma Henry), for whom Elizabeth shows heart-rendingly little concern. Every day Aibileen tells Mae Mobley, "You is kind. You is smart. You is important."When Skeeter gets home, her mother, Charlotte (Allison Janney), is trying on a dress. Charlotte gets Skeeter to try it on and bugs her about still being single. Skeeter mentions the job she landed, and her mother frets that she'll never get married. Charlotte asks whether Skeeter is attracted to women, as she's "heard of an herbal remedy than can cure such 'unnatural' urges." Skeeter is horrified.At dinner that night Skeeter makes a rude remark about liking girls and her mother excuses herself from the table because Skeeter has upset her cancerous ulcer. Skeeter runs to a favorite spot outdoors, a small bench under a tree, and remembers how Constantine (Cicely Tyson), the maid who raised her from a child, comforted her when she wasn't asked to a dance. Skeeter desperately misses Constantine, who according to Charlotte quit while Skeeter was away at college. Skeeter can tell there's more to the story, but no one will say what really happened. Disturbed by the sudden loss of Constantine and at how Elizabeth and Hilly treat their own maids with bigoted condescension, Skeeter conceives a writing project: a book about the lives of Jackson's maids. She describes the project to Elaine Stein (Mary Steenburgen), an editor in New York, and receives lukewarm encouragement; Elaine doubts that any maids will agree to participate. Skeeter approaches Aibeleen about the book, but Aibileen declines to be interviewed.Hilly's maid, Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), disobeys Hilly's order not to use the family's bathroom during a violent thunderstorm that makes a trip to the outhouse dangerous. Hilly fires her over the objections of her own mother, Mrs. Walters (Sissy Spacek). In retaliation, Minny makes a chocolate pie into which she has baked her own feces, and takes it to Hilly in a fake act of contrition. While Hilly greedily eats two slices, she asks why her mother can't have a slice, to which Minny explains that it's a "special pie, just for Miss Hilly." A moment later Minny tells Hilly, "Eat my shit!" Hilly asks if Minny's lost her mind, and Minny replies, "No, ma'am, but you is about to. 'Cause you just did." Hilly's mother laughs and laughs and Hilly retaliates by having her mother committed to a nursing home.Later that night, Minny's husband beats her while Aibileen listens on the phone.At church the next day, Aibileen hears a sermon about courage and changing her mind, resolves to help Skeeter with her book. She tearfully recounts to Skeeter and Minny the story of her son's death years before: At age twenty-four, Aibileen's son was run over by a truck at his workplace. The white foreman drove him to a colored hospital, dumped him on the ground, honked the horn, and left. By that point it was too late to save him, so Aibileen brought him home, where he died on the sofa right before her eyes. She expresses her pain, saying "The anniversary of his death comes every year, and every year I can't breathe. But to you all, it's just another day of bridge." She becomes even more invested in the dangerous book project.Meanwhile Minny goes to work for Celia Foote, who's had no luck breaking into the Junior League social set and is therefore somewhat isolated. Celia pays Minny under the table because she doesn't want her husband to know that she has no domestic skills. Although she is generally suspicious of white people, Minny finds herself becoming more comfortable around Celia, who is bubbly and treats Minny with respect, but is deeply insecure. Minny improves Celia's dismal cooking skills by teaching her how to make fried chicken on her first day. They bond further when Celia suffers her fourth miscarriage. While Minny helps her into bed and soothes her, Celia is overwrought. She reveals that she married her husband Johnny (Mike Vogel) because she was pregnant, but quickly lost the baby and hasn't told him about the three failed pregnancies that followed. She worries that she will never be able to have children.Hilly's new maid, Yule Mae (Aunjanue Ellis), explains to her employer that her twin sons have graduated high school and that she and her husband have been saving for years to send them to college. However, they are short $75 on one tuition, and are on the verge of having to choose which son can go. Yule Mae respectfully asks Hilly for a loan, saying that she will gladly work for free until the loan is paid off. Hilly refuses, explaining that it's "the Christian thing" to do because God does not give charity to those who are well and able. While vacuuming Hilly's living room later, Yule Mae finds a ring, which she pockets and later tries to pawn, hoping to get the tuition money. Hilly finds out and has Yule Mae arrested at the bus stop in front of the other maids, all of whom are deeply shaken by the event.Aibileen recruits a reluctant Minny into the book project, but Elaine Stein (who's warming to the idea) insists the book will need at least a dozen voices -- including the story of Skeeter's own relationship with Constantine. After Yule Mae's arrest, nearly all the local maids volunteer to help with the book. Though she has changed the names of everyone involved, Skeeter remains concerned that people will recognize the maids and create more trouble for the Negro community in the wake of the recent murder of Medgar Evars. Minny insists that they include the story about Hilly and the chocolate pie -- which she refers to as her "terrible awful" -- as insurance against being identified; an embarrassed Hilly will not want anyone to know that she ingested her maid's feces and will do all she can to convince everyone that the book isn't about Jackson.Hilly has several times directed Skeeter, who writes the Junior League newsletter, to include an item about her proposed "sanitation initiative," but Skeeter keeps putting her off. Now Hilly adds an item about a charity coat drive, the coats for which are to be dropped off at Hilly's house. Skeeter includes both items, but changes "coats" to something else.The next day Elizabeth gets a call and rushes herself, Mae Mobley, and Aibileen over to Hilly's, where Hilly is screaming, "I told her to write 'coats'! Not 'commodes'!" On Hilly's lawn are about 40 toilets. While Hilly continues her histrionics, Mae Mobley innocently sits on a toilet and Elizabeth slaps her till she sobs. Mae Mobley runs to Aibileen, who holds her and whispers, "You is kind. You is smart. You is important."Skeeter eventually pries the story of Constantine's departure out of her mother: Charlotte fired Constantine because Constantine's daughter Rachel (LaChanze) refused to use the back door and embarrassed Charlotte while she was hosting an important DAR luncheon. Charlotte regretted it and tried to get Constantine to come back, going so far as to send her son, Skeeter's brother, to Constantine's new home in Chicago, but by the time he got there, Constantine had died.Skeeter's book The Help is published anonymously, and soon everyone in Jackson is reading it. True to Minny's prediction, Hilly is horrified to find the chocolate pie story therein and goes out of her way to assure her friends that The Help isn't about Jackson. Skeeter splits the advance she receives evenly among all the maids, promising that more is on the way. She's offered a job at the publishing house in New York, which she is disinclined to take, but Aibileen and Minny insist that she must.Stuart Whitworth (Chris Lowell), whom Skeeter has been dating, breaks up with Skeeter when he finds out it was she who wrote The Help. Hilly also figures out who wrote the book and storms over to Skeeter's house in a drunken fury. She threatens to tell Skeeter's mother, but Charlotte kicks Hilly off her property after insulting her and insinuating she knows about the pie. Charlotte tells Skeeter to take the job in New York, which Skeeter does, and Charlotte tells her she's proud of her.Celia works hard to prepare a lavish meal for Minny in gratitude for all she has done. Celia's husband, who has known all along that Minny is working for Celia, tells Minny she will have a job with them for as long as she wants it. Inspired, Minny leaves her abusive husband, taking their children with her.One of the final scenes shows Hilly taking in her mail. One item is a check for $200, a donation from Celia to the Junior League benefit. When she sees that the check is made out to "Two-Slice Hilly," she throws a tantrum and tears it up.Hilly, falsely claiming that Aibileen has stolen some silverware, browbeats the weak-willed Elizabeth into firing Aibileen. When alone with Aibileen, Hilly cruelly tells her that while she cannot send Aibileen to jail for her involvement in the book, she can send her "for being a thief." Aibileen snaps and finally stands up to Hilly, calling her a "godless woman" for her false accusations and for her conniving and backstabbing ways, at which Hilly bursts into tears of rage and leaves. Mae Mobley begs Aibileen not to leave her. They share a tearful goodbye, during which Aibileen repeats her affirming mantra: "You is kind. You is smart. You is important." Elizabeth shows a rare glimpse of emotion, tearing up as she watches Mae Mobley bang on the window, crying for Aibileen to return. As she walks away, Aibileen promises herself that she will become a writer, as her son had encouraged her to do.

Tags: historical, feel-good

Review:
This is an incredible film that not only pays justice to the bestseller on which it's based (according to those who have read the book AND seen the film), but is phenomenally cast, with exceptional performances by Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard and Allison Janney.
While Tyson's character is central to the storyline, her role comprises what seems to be a few, precious minutes of the 2:20 running time, she delivers, in my opinion, one of the most powerful and moving moments in the film...one in which she doesn't even utter a line (trust me, you'll know when you see it.)The Help also delivers some very funny moments and will make you laugh.
Even the books on Skeeter's shelf make a statement: To Kill a Mockingbird, Huck Finn, Native Son, and Gone With the Wind.This story takes place 50 years ago and director Tate Taylor does an admirable job of bringing Stockett's novel to the big screen.
I just got back from a special-screening of "The Help" at my local movie theatre, so I thought that I might as well do a review for all of you who are wanting to see this movie when it comes out.Now, first off, I must admit that I have only read a portion of the book, but I definitely do know a lot about it.
I won't go into too much depth about the characters, but for me, Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain, Sissy Spacek, and Octavia Spencer were the shining stars of the movie.Casting: 9.5/10 I know that there has been an on-going issue about this movie from a lot of people claiming that "the blacks had to be 'saved' by the whites" (pardon the language), or something along those lines.
Minny and Aibileen, as well as the other colored-folks in the community, were the real "heroes" of the movie; they just needed someone to push them to their potential (Skeeter).I can not remember the last time I saw a movie that inspired me, made me cry, made me laugh, and made me sad, angry, and hopeful, all at the same time -- this is what "The Help" strides and aims for, without making it "cheesy".
There are so few roles written for black women and I was thrilled to see such great roles filled by Viola Davis (Abigail) and Octavia Spencer (Minnie) - both should be nominated for supporting roles although in my opinion, along with Emma Stone, all three share top billing.The character development in this movie is really outstanding – I hate movies with flat single dimension characters and these from the lowest to those with the most screen time are just remarkably developed – even the newspaper editor, the lines they chose for him to keep gave you enough information that even he is a memorable character with only three scenes, maybe 4 in the entire movie.
Admittedly, being based on an amazing book the background story was already set out and tracks the book closely without some of the details but they have done a great job of putting it to film – This movie sets out beautifully a terrible time in our history that unfortunately is not over – it is better, but not over by a long shot.
I can say that as a Northerner with a black maid for our household, there was love but always a barrier, a carryover from the strict separation still prevailing after reconstruction.Director Tate Taylor keeps the race relations taut but not strident, as if we were living through the emerging civil rights movement slowly but inevitably aimed at equality, not "separate but equal." Skeeter (Emma Stone) graduates, returns to Jackson, Miss., and decides to write about the black help, whose "perspective' needs to be told.
Emma Stone no longer need rely on rom-coms, for she stars in The Help with a performance nuanced and underplayed, just the way I like it, albeit a bit too hip for the times.Although the film tends toward the simplistic, e.g., there are no bad blacks and most whites are obtuse, Viola Davis as maid Aibileen Clark successfully carries the film displaying the ambivalent nature of slavery ready to burst out of its chains..
The Help is one of the many films that's set in the 60s that deals with themes like prejudice and racism involving segregation amongst the Whites and the African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi, but having the very same themes also being relevant in society today even here in Singapore especially, with recent talk and focus on the issue of domestic help and our attitudes toward household maids that many employ for various reasons, who assist in looking after the children and the elderly, as well as to keep home while the rest of the adults are neck deep in economic pursuits.
And for all their cliquish behaviour in cruelly treating one of their own as a social outcast (Jessica Chastain from The Tree of Life), for an ulterior reason only Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) knows, what more their household maids who have to slog with the chores, be that surrogate mother to their kids, be at their beck and call, and being given attitude, stick, and threats of the sack?Given the tension all round during the time, it's no wonder that Skeeter's plans to want to highlight The Help's predicament and provide them with a voice, no doubt also serving as a ticket for her journalistic ambitions to embark on a career in New York, all met with stone walled silence, until Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) decided that enough is enough, and begin opening up to Skeeter as research material, becoming her insights and perspective on how the African American help get treated in White households.
And besides Aibileen's point of view, her friend Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) also chipped in, and both represent the broad spectrum of heartfelt accounts both good and bad, though largely negative, with the tacit understanding with Skeeter that they are not to be referred to directly.It's one of those powerful films that takes the ugly side of humanity and presents it to us face on, to confront how cruel some of us can be, and what the strong amongst us must do to act and help those who are weak or bullied.
Director Tate Taylor, who also wrote the screenplay, focuses on the tales crafted around the households both Aibileen and Minny serve, from being treated like dirt to forming firm friendships with some of the people they know and serve, such as Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), as a reminder on how we should never judge a book by its cover, being obviously relevant when one gets handed one's fate for being of a certain skin colour.
I'm not into that black-white-red-yellow affirmative action, divide or whatever you call it and I have not experienced that American slavery or racism history except seeing it presented one-sided or biased on TV.Now having proclaimed my neutrality above, I will tell you this: this is one powerful movie that will sure touch and move you in one way or another whatever your political lining.
This film uses every cliché in the book starting with the liberal minded white person who is the voice of conscience and the long suffering good hearted but somewhat simplistic black people.This film is emotionally manipulative and panders to a sentimental reduction of complex history.
Still, a bigger problem and disservice a movie like this does to our culture is that such bad history and simplistic human portrayals turns race dynamics into good guy bad guy stories which we can watch with a complacent feeling of how much better we are than those bad old days.
Other families had black maids and no one ever, ever, ever, ever, ever talked about them or treated them the way they are in this film (haven't read the book) but instead with value and respect, though within the confines of the segregationist times.
Having never read the book but always wanting too, The help was an obvious choice whilst choosing a film for a quiet night in with friends.Set in the 1960's, The Help tells the story of two black maids trying to make a decent living in the south.
Aibileen also does this and still manages to keep it genuine as she creates a bond with one of the children she cares for telling her 'you is kind, you is smart, you is important' this was an important relationship in the film because it educates the audience about the emotional bond that developed between maids and those that they cared for.Skeeter's tell all book provides an opportunity for a power shift from the black staff to their white owners and back and forth, providing a roller coaster of entertainment for the viewer..
Neglected by a mother who finds her too chubby and cumbersome, and a constantly absent father, Abileen is the only caring adult in the girl's life, the one who's there for her through real and metaphorical storms.Based on the bestseller by the same name written by Kathryn Stocket in 2009, the movie version of The Help, directed by Tate Taylor, tells the story of the young aspiring writer Eugenia (nicknamed Skeeter and played by Emma Stone).
All of this is woven into a background pastiche of civil rights movements events like the Medgar Evers murder to show us just how brave and heroic both Skeeter and her coterie of Black maids are, and to remind us about why Hollywood bothered to make this movie in the first place..
Believable characters compliment the strong, gripping story, and all are played well, demonstrating skilled acting.The relationships between characters are amazing, and you find yourself relating with the characters as you experience the ones in the film.You can sit in a cinema watching this film and all at once, laugh, cry and smile, as you stare in awe at this cinematic genius.I look forward to reading the book in the near future, as I am sure it will be just as good.Best Picture, here we come!.
First she convinces Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) to open her heart to her; then Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) is unfairly fired by the arrogant Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is a leader in the racist high society, and Minny decides to tell her stories after finding a job with the outcast Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain).
The performances of Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain are top-notch and all of them deserved at least nomination to the Oscar and major film festivals.
Set in 1960s Mississippi, The Help is about a white girl, Skeeter Phelan, who collaborates with black maids to tell their stories of what it's like to work in a white household.
Although, there may be some competition at the Academy Awards this year, I still believe that "The Help" will get away with some wins which it deserves.To start with, it is the stunning performances.Emma Stone, taking the leading role of Skeeter, has shown the audience that her acting can be much more than "Easy A".
Certainly Bryce Dallas Howard's Hilly is he most obvious example but really the movie is peppered with stereotypes: the shallow housewife; the modern go-girl (who just happens to be an diamond in the rough, just to emphasise that its what's inside that counts, and that white people have real problems too); the bimbo with a heart; the mother who wishes she had the strength; the oppressed but wise housemaid; the bread-winning husbands that look the other way, and so on and so on.It might be cathartic for white Americans to make and see films like The Help but really they're not fooling anyone.
This year in The Help,she again manages to move us with her acting potentials.She does the role of a black maid who raises white children.The movie is set against the backdrop of racism, wherein the maids (all colored women) from Jackson come forward to give in their experiences in the houses of the whites where they are employed.And each ones experiences comes together to take in the shape of a book by Anonymous, thanks to Skeeter(Emma Stone....
another notable character in the movie),which turns out to be popular but also a threat to some of the white women who have to face the consequences of their mindset(one hilarious moment being when Mrs.Hilly eats the pie made by Minny........an incredible revenge I say)...oh yeah .........Minny....Octavia Spencer,I should mention has done an outstanding work....one class apart performance......and even Jessica Chastain manages to grab your attention as a dumb white mistress(Ms.Celia Foote) to Minny but she is extremely good at heart(which I believe is more important to call yourself a human being).
But what makes the performances so strong is beautiful adaptation of the screenplay and a good job from the director ........Tate Taylor.....he surely does deserve kudos.What I loved about his work was that he could purely read my mind....I gave it a thought .......is the movie about racism?.......NO..........it is only about the maids who are doing an incredible favor to their mistress.......raising their children.........and in return these women get treated like shits.I adore the way he made this point clear across the film.
I went through all of the emotions: anger, sadness, happiness...there were plenty of laughs and plenty of tears.Emma Stone shines brightly as the films headstrong protagonist, Eugenia (Skeeter), who barrels against social injustice through her compilation of the accounts of numerous Black maids in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi into a compelling novel.
yet when you watch a film set at one of the most volatile and important eras of the last 500 years and it basically is a Rom-com by numbers except black people are the shy guy who gets the hot girl in the end and the 'mean-girl-who-doesn't-get-her-way' is the symbol of indolent white middle-class racist.
The Help is set in the 1960's where colored people had little to no rights and mainly focuses on the colored maids working for the "white" people.I didn't really want to see the movie but it got great reviews so I decided to check it out.
The acting was amazing and there was great chemistry among the respectful classes of people in the film ( the whites and the blacks).The script was well written and I love the balance of comedy and drama.
Its also one of those movies that can hold your interest from beginning to end.With great performances, a brilliant script and a film so touching and inspiring, The Help is definitely a must-see!.
So my personal take on it is that even if it often tries a little too hard to pull on your heartstrings and may reduce segregation issues of that era to a simplistic black and white (har har) situation, the entertaining story, good direction and great acting performances makes this a movie worth the watch..
Set in Jackson, Mississippi at the dawn of the Civil Rights movement, Emma Stone plays the plucky, fresh-out-of-college Skeeter, who is just plain enough to stand out in her clique of well-to-do white housewives who, beneath their frivolous goings on, treat their black house- helps like slaves.
The audio book version of the novel "The Help" is award-winning, done by 4 (3 main) different actresses that really bring it to life.I wasn't quite ready to let go of the characters and watched this movie, hoping to prolong the experience.
An aspiring author played by pretty Emma Stone during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
As a movie that deals with racism, it's dialed down a notch but it's still powerful nonetheless.This film is about a 23-year-old, white Mississippi girl who wanted to change the lives of black people for the better.
I also loved the evilness by Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly because I just loathed the character in the movie.Overall, this is a great, powerful film that will have you cheering at some moments and in tears in other moments.
The picture proves definitely up to the novel, that same entertaining and sensitive touch is evident from the first shots, and it's very easy to be drawn into the story and the characters.Certainly, "The help", both the novel and the movie, does not have the sharp and dramatic edge of "The long walk home", and although truly committed while representing the condition of black maids working for white families during the 60's, some light is shed, in a way that racism and intolerance are to be counterbalanced by the idea that something could really change.
Focus in on the womens' relationship, and also the contrast white-black is explored from a female point of view, around the themes of motherhood and the role of women in Southern society, inside a story where the male point of view is almost absent.The movie is wonderfully acted, once having read the novel, I could not have thought of better interpreters, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Emma Stone are exactly how I had devised Aibileen, Minnie, and Skeeter in my mind.
Also the characters of Celia, Hilly and Skeeters's mother help compose a great female cast, and make the movie truly enjoyable from beginning till end.
There are wonderful performances by the maids, Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis, who surely must be in the running for Oscar nominations.The book on which the movie is based is pure fiction but the interspersing of historical facts – the murder of a civil rights campaigner and the assassination of President Kennedy – create the feel of a true story.
Maybe it just didn't seem as sappy in the book.I also thought the movie actually minimized the attitude that whites had toward blacks by making it seem like the racism in Jackson came from mean-spirited people like Hilly, as if it wasn't rampant among everyone.The whole pie-eating thing trivialized what the maids went through and how they must have retaliated at times.