The Help (2011)

The Help first appeared on my radar largely because my mum has been nagging me for a while to read the book. I’m sure it’s wonderful, but I haven’t got around to it yet. It made me notice the film though when it was coming out and I would have seen it then, were it not for my general preference of wanting to read books before watching the film version. Then came the BAFTAs, and the Oscars and there was no escaping the praise given to this film; particularly to Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis, actresses who play two black maids working for rich white families.

The first thing I think is worth noting is that The Help is set in the 1960s. I am astounded at how ignorant about racism issues people could be as recently as this. Being born in the ‘80s and growing up in an overly politically correct society doesn’t prepare you for such attitudes and I feel really quite ashamed of my naivety.

The film follows Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan - a young white woman returning from university and embarking on a new career as a journalist in her home town of Jackson, Mississippi. As a girl she was cared for by a black maid and is now eager to publish a book telling the stories of maids in the city where she grew up. This is apparently an illegal thing to do and at first the only two to maids brave enough to talk to her are Aibileen and Minny (Spencer, Davis). As it turns out, they have a plenty of material. Skeeter’s attitude towards ‘the help’ is in contrast to the rest of her peers who, through disdain, fear, or peer-pressure treat their maids really rather badly, while trying to maintain their own position in the city’s social scene.

For all its difficult themes of racism, domestic violence, and generally dated attitudes towards women, this is actually a feel-good film. Davis as Minny provides enough comedy to almost carry the film herself (no wonder she won many Best Supporting Actress awards) and the warmth shown by Aibileen to everybody is genuinely uplifting.

While I won’t claim it is artistic genius, I enjoyed this film enough to almost want to watch it again immediately, and I will definitely sit down to watch it again fairly soon. I am also going to keep my eye out for any future work from director Tate Taylor. After a while acting in some rather negligible roles, I think he may well have finally found his niche.