Along with Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud, this film is probably the most self-conscious in its 'Oscar-baitiness' this awards season. A period film about the civil rights movement in America's deep south? The Academy has always loved films like this. There's been some criticism that The Help seeks to alleviate white guilt by having a white heroine as the saviour of racial tension in Jackson, Tennessee. It probably doesn't help that the source material's author, Kathryn Stockett, is about as black as skinny jeans and How I Met Your Mother.
I just want to say straight up that these criticisms are completely unfair and miss the point of the film entirely. I'd like to think that western society hasn't become so cynical that we can't make films about subjects like this, and I think it would be pretty hard to argue that the real stars of this film aren't the African-American actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. As much as Emma Stone's character acts on their behalf, there's no denying the fact that most of the film's tension derives from the dangers experienced by the black characters. More importantly, it's disingenuous to ignore the fact that the civil rights movement could not have happened if it weren't for the combined efforts of people on both sides of the civil rights line. You can't have equality without someone from the power-wielding side acknowledging the imbalance. It's simple logic.
Anyway, rant over. The Help is about the servant class in 1960s Jackson, Tennessee... these are the African-American women who babysit and clean for the town's upper class women. Skeeter (Emma Stone) is an aspiring white writer (representing the era's shift towards gender equality) who wants to collect and publish the stories of these disenfranchised women. She herself was raised by an unfairly treated black woman and this is partially a story about what happens when the children these women raise are all grown up and educated. Representing 'the help' are Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer), two put-upon but strong-willed women who have come to a breaking point in this racially inequal society. Slavery may have been abolished some 80 years earlier, but true freedom is not yet theirs. This is about the prolonged transitional period (nearly 100 years) between slavery and social freedom. This is very much the African-American side of the story.
It's not a groundbreaking film and the themes it deals with should be quite familiar to modern filmgoers, but the story it tells has a real character-depth and quality to it. It feels like a light is being shone onto the inequality of an age. For all our familiarity with this topic via films like Forrest Gump or Mississippi Burning, the soul of the civil rights movement has never really been given centrestage and shown like this. This is how it happened, as it happened. The acting is all heartfelt and perfectly pitched, there's an unsung frankness to Emma Stone's performance that suits the role of a trailblazer, and Davis and Spencer are both magnetic in their pivotal roles. There's a certain satisfaction in taking this journey with them and then seeing Jackson's women confronted with the shame of what they've truly done. This is genuinely good film, ignore the hype and the haters and just enjoy it.
DIRECTOR: Tate TaylorI just want to say straight up that these criticisms are completely unfair and miss the point of the film entirely. I'd like to think that western society hasn't become so cynical that we can't make films about subjects like this, and I think it would be pretty hard to argue that the real stars of this film aren't the African-American actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. As much as Emma Stone's character acts on their behalf, there's no denying the fact that most of the film's tension derives from the dangers experienced by the black characters. More importantly, it's disingenuous to ignore the fact that the civil rights movement could not have happened if it weren't for the combined efforts of people on both sides of the civil rights line. You can't have equality without someone from the power-wielding side acknowledging the imbalance. It's simple logic.
Anyway, rant over. The Help is about the servant class in 1960s Jackson, Tennessee... these are the African-American women who babysit and clean for the town's upper class women. Skeeter (Emma Stone) is an aspiring white writer (representing the era's shift towards gender equality) who wants to collect and publish the stories of these disenfranchised women. She herself was raised by an unfairly treated black woman and this is partially a story about what happens when the children these women raise are all grown up and educated. Representing 'the help' are Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer), two put-upon but strong-willed women who have come to a breaking point in this racially inequal society. Slavery may have been abolished some 80 years earlier, but true freedom is not yet theirs. This is about the prolonged transitional period (nearly 100 years) between slavery and social freedom. This is very much the African-American side of the story.
It's not a groundbreaking film and the themes it deals with should be quite familiar to modern filmgoers, but the story it tells has a real character-depth and quality to it. It feels like a light is being shone onto the inequality of an age. For all our familiarity with this topic via films like Forrest Gump or Mississippi Burning, the soul of the civil rights movement has never really been given centrestage and shown like this. This is how it happened, as it happened. The acting is all heartfelt and perfectly pitched, there's an unsung frankness to Emma Stone's performance that suits the role of a trailblazer, and Davis and Spencer are both magnetic in their pivotal roles. There's a certain satisfaction in taking this journey with them and then seeing Jackson's women confronted with the shame of what they've truly done. This is genuinely good film, ignore the hype and the haters and just enjoy it.
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Tate Taylor, based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett.
KEY ACTORS: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Anna Camp, Mike Vogel, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen
RELATED TEXTS:
- The 2009 novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett.- Films about African-Americans and the civil rights movement: Mississippi Burning, The Colour Purple, Forrest Gump (partially), Malcolm X, King, To Kill a Mockingbird and Ghosts of Mississippi.
.- Director-writer Tate Taylor (who more usually works as an actor) previously directed and wrote the film Pretty Ugly People.
AWARDS
Academy Awards - won Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer). Also nominated for Best Film, Best Acterss (Viola Davis) and Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Chastain).
BAFTAs - won Best Supporting Actress (Spencer). Also nominated for Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress (Davis) and Best Supporting Actress (Chastain).
Golden Globes - won Best Supporting Actress (Spencer). Nominated for Best Film (Drama), Best Actress - Drama (Davis), Best Supporting Actress (Chastain) and Best Song (The Living Proof).
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