|
The Help
| Released |
26 October 2011 |
| Director |
Tate Taylor |
Starring
|
Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Ahna O'Reilly, Allison Janney |
| Writer(s) |
Tate Taylor |
Producer(s)
|
Michael Barnathan, Chris Columbus, Brunson Green |
Origin
|
United States, India,
United Arab Emirates |
| Running Time |
146 minutes |
| Genre |
Drama |
| Rating |
12A |
|
|
Help wanted.
Rather than being a popcorn movie, The Help is more a tea and biscuits kind of experience. It is well-made and cosily enjoyable but hardly memorable. Adapted from the bestselling novel, The Help is set in the well appointed homes of the white elite of Jackson, Mississippi at the beginning of the ‘60s. Skeeter (Emma Stone) is an ambitious young woman and aspiring journalist who returns home from college to find herself out of odds with the Stepford lives of her one time peers. Disturbed by the outlandish racism and general snobbery displayed by her one-time friend Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), she begins to document the lives of two black women (Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer), who are so central to the running of these well-to-do households.
So, while the film is pitched as an insight into the lives of the black women who run white households and raise white children, it is (as is usual for mainstream Hollywood cinema) seen through the eyes of the white mistress. Skeeter has a certain degree of sympathy with these women but is not a revolutionary. She approaches the project as a plea for better working conditions rather than emancipation and throughout, remains unwilling to rock the boat or lose face amongst her friends. As a whole, the politics displayed here are more Civil Rights Lite than Malcolm X and should be taken with a large grain of salt.
Having said that, the film does have its merits. The story is engaging enough and director Tate Taylor presents a handsome vision of the balmy South. Its primary asset though is the strength of its female ensemble cast. The performances from Davis and Spencer alone have enough integrity to stop the whole film tipping into sentimentality. Stone is her usual likable self and there are some nice turns from Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney and veteran actress Cicely Tyson. Jessica Chastain continues to prove herself one to watch with her exuberant turn. The only weak link is Dallas Howard, whose performance occasionally stumbles into hysterical, cartoonish villainy and in the process loses some of its power.
The Help is essentially a cosy fairytale but is not without its charms and its strong female cast (a rarity in our cinemas) makes it worth a look.
-
Linda O’Brien |
