“The Help” catches you off guard with warmth and humor in the midst of great turmoil. A tremendous cast of extraordinary women will move you to laugh and to cry within the space of moments. This story of racism, civil rights and dignity in the face of undignified circumstances finds glorious moments of grace and humor amidst a story that invites anger and sadness.
Emma Stone stands at the center of “The Help” as Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan a budding journalist who returns to her family home in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. Things haven’t changed much since she left but they are about to. Skeeter’s writing career is about to take off after she gets the idea to write a scathing novel that exposes the ugly, racist side of Jackson’s high society.
Bryce Dallas Howard plays Hilly, a high strung ex-classmate who touches off Skeeter’s controversial idea by angrily insisting that her African American maid, Mini (Octavia Spencer), not use her bathroom. Hilly is convinced that Black people carry different diseases than white people and she intends to start a trend in Jackson of building separate bathrooms in everyone’s home for the Help.
Mini is soon fired after she refuses to use the outdoor bathroom in the midst of a hurricane. Eventually, Mini will tell her stories about Hilly to Skeeter for her book which will for the first time tell a story from the perspective of The Help. First to aid Skeeter however, is Aibileen (Viola Davis) who decides that telling her story is necessary after seeing another maid arrested for doing something desperate to take care of her kids.
Soon other maids are talking and Skeeter has a remarkable book that is more than just juicy gossip; it may be an article for change. In the time of the story of The Help Medgar Evers and President Kennedy are assassinated and Dr. Martin Luther King is risking his life to lead the fight for Civil Rights. This historic context lends seriousness to The Help that underlines the film’s poignancies.
This remarkable cast has the power to move audiences with just a word or a glance. The emotional strength of Viola Davis is matched by the fearlessness and attitude of Octavia Spencer and each create a bond with Emma Stone that allows the book writing scenes to crackle with unexpected life and wit.
Bryce Dallas Howard has the most difficult role in The Help and pulls it off with remarkable ease. Howard is the focus of our hatred as the virulently racist Hilly and while it would have been easy to make Hilly a racist punch line, Howard invests Hilly with truth and life.
The revelation of “The Help,” however, is not Stone or Davis or Howard but Jessica Chastain. In a role that really doesn’t need to be in this movie in terms of plot, Jessica Chastain plays Celia Foote a reputed gold digger who is desperate to be accepted into high society. Celia begins as a caricature of Southern flightiness but as the film goes on her pluck and spirit become so delightful that you wish she had a movie of her own to show off in.
This is Jessica Chastain’s second Oscar worthy performance of 2011 following her stunning turn in the Terence Malick epic “Tree of Life.” Chastain’s work in “The Help” is such a transformation from “Tree of Life” that I didn’t know it was her until I checked the credits after the movie; a demonstration of Chastain’s amazing range.
“The Help” is one of my favorite movies of 2011; a smart, moving, funny and warm movie that features one of the most talented casts we’ve seen assembled in a long while. Emma Stone is about to be a huge star and Jessica Chastain is the next big thing while Viola Davis is the pillar of strength on whom the performances of others are built and find firm foundation.