The Help
The Help (2011)
Director: Tate Taylor
Starring: Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone
Canadian Rating: PG
3 stars out of 4 (Good)
“What does it feel like to raise a white child when your own child's at home being looked after by somebody else?”
This is one of the questions that gets asked to Aibeleen Clark (Viola Davis), an African-American housemaid who has only known one job her whole life. Like many other women of her race of the 1960s, since she was a teenager, Aibeleen has worked 6 days a week, raising and caring for the children of their white employers. These children come to see these housemaids in their thankless jobs as their real mothers and these housemaids turn to see these children grow up to become just like their biological parents; discriminatory, ignorant, and unsympathetic.
This is essentially the side of the story that The Help attempts to convey through the eyes of Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), an aspiring writer with big city dreams. In the meantime, she settles for Jackson, Mississippi, where she hopes to land the greatest journalistic achievement that her hometown has ever seen. In her quest, she befriends the housemaid of her friend Elizabeth Leefolt (Ahna O’Reilly), Aibeleen, but it’s not that easy. After all, what comfort can one find when their sole source of income is the job they’d essentially be bad-mouthing publicly? Further, what security can be derived when the KKK are killing blacks in the street? Writer and director Tate Taylor provides awareness of these challenges, both through Aibeleen and through another maid, Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), who acts as the common-sense backbone to Aibeleen.
As far as filmmaking competency goes, Taylor’s screenplay and direction aren’t particularly groundbreaking. Many parallel stories are hung out to dry and wrap up a little too nicely near the end, tonal shifts from brisk good-hearted comedy to painful cathartic admissions are juxtaposed awkwardly, and some of the obstacles thrown at the characters border on becoming repetitious. Yet what saves The Help and its occasionally low stakes from becoming another forgetful effort for a worthy historical cause are the performances he extracts from his ensemble.
Viola Davis carries much of this film, saving it from melodramatic tedium and elevating it to a movie that will leave many touched. For a woman who just held her ground for all of 10 minutes with Merryl Streep in Doubt 3 years ago, Davis blows away Stone and practically every actor she shares the screen with. Her Aibeleen is a character that has given so much and received so little back that we question her motivations, yet Davis makes Aibeleen a woman of profound power, confidence, and immense heart. That despite all that she has faced, she finds joy in making others happy, regardless of who they are, how they look, or the pain they can create.
Supporting Davis at the film’s centre is the story of Minny and her relationship with her new employer, Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), the rejected white housewife of the town. Unlike the other women of her race, Celia’s relationship with Minny is strong due to the commonalities they share. They are both good people but are discriminated against for different reasons. The result is perhaps the most touching of the many stories The Help tries to convey and Spencer and Chastain (who is barely recognizable) play off each other so well that if I had to pick who to give an Oscar to, I’d have to flip a coin because it’s so close.
The Help, for all its problems, is ultimately a safe crowd-pleasing effort. While it presents nothing new, this is a film that I bet will find its way into school systems for its straightforward, PG-rated telling of a dark time in American history.
I truly believe greatness for this film was in reach had Taylor wanted to push a few more buttons. Too bad the material was treaded upon a little too lightly.
Director: Tate Taylor
Starring: Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone
Canadian Rating: PG
3 stars out of 4 (Good)
“What does it feel like to raise a white child when your own child's at home being looked after by somebody else?”
This is one of the questions that gets asked to Aibeleen Clark (Viola Davis), an African-American housemaid who has only known one job her whole life. Like many other women of her race of the 1960s, since she was a teenager, Aibeleen has worked 6 days a week, raising and caring for the children of their white employers. These children come to see these housemaids in their thankless jobs as their real mothers and these housemaids turn to see these children grow up to become just like their biological parents; discriminatory, ignorant, and unsympathetic.
This is essentially the side of the story that The Help attempts to convey through the eyes of Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), an aspiring writer with big city dreams. In the meantime, she settles for Jackson, Mississippi, where she hopes to land the greatest journalistic achievement that her hometown has ever seen. In her quest, she befriends the housemaid of her friend Elizabeth Leefolt (Ahna O’Reilly), Aibeleen, but it’s not that easy. After all, what comfort can one find when their sole source of income is the job they’d essentially be bad-mouthing publicly? Further, what security can be derived when the KKK are killing blacks in the street? Writer and director Tate Taylor provides awareness of these challenges, both through Aibeleen and through another maid, Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), who acts as the common-sense backbone to Aibeleen.
As far as filmmaking competency goes, Taylor’s screenplay and direction aren’t particularly groundbreaking. Many parallel stories are hung out to dry and wrap up a little too nicely near the end, tonal shifts from brisk good-hearted comedy to painful cathartic admissions are juxtaposed awkwardly, and some of the obstacles thrown at the characters border on becoming repetitious. Yet what saves The Help and its occasionally low stakes from becoming another forgetful effort for a worthy historical cause are the performances he extracts from his ensemble.
Viola Davis carries much of this film, saving it from melodramatic tedium and elevating it to a movie that will leave many touched. For a woman who just held her ground for all of 10 minutes with Merryl Streep in Doubt 3 years ago, Davis blows away Stone and practically every actor she shares the screen with. Her Aibeleen is a character that has given so much and received so little back that we question her motivations, yet Davis makes Aibeleen a woman of profound power, confidence, and immense heart. That despite all that she has faced, she finds joy in making others happy, regardless of who they are, how they look, or the pain they can create.
Supporting Davis at the film’s centre is the story of Minny and her relationship with her new employer, Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), the rejected white housewife of the town. Unlike the other women of her race, Celia’s relationship with Minny is strong due to the commonalities they share. They are both good people but are discriminated against for different reasons. The result is perhaps the most touching of the many stories The Help tries to convey and Spencer and Chastain (who is barely recognizable) play off each other so well that if I had to pick who to give an Oscar to, I’d have to flip a coin because it’s so close.
The Help, for all its problems, is ultimately a safe crowd-pleasing effort. While it presents nothing new, this is a film that I bet will find its way into school systems for its straightforward, PG-rated telling of a dark time in American history.
I truly believe greatness for this film was in reach had Taylor wanted to push a few more buttons. Too bad the material was treaded upon a little too lightly.