The Help *****
Influential films featuring an all-female cast are surprisingly few and far between, especially such projects that allow the actors to deliver a career-defining punch. Based on the New York Times best-selling debut novel of the same name from Kathryn Stockett, writer/director Tate Taylor takes its subject matter to heart – he and Stockett are childhood friends who grew up in Jackson, Mississippi – and breathes visual life into the empowering characters, without missing a beat as to how these different women interact in a time of considerable change.
Aspiring author Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan (Emma Stone) lives during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and decides to write a book detailing the African American maid’s – or ‘The Help’s’ – point of view on working for White families at the time, and the hardships they go through on a day-to-day basis.
Taylor’s take is a profound and rousing triumph, and possibly the best screen story of this year. It may have remarkable sisterhood energy at its core, but the essence of humour, hardship and inevitable hope are qualities that either sex can fully relate to. Like the Noughties’ very own The Color Purple with a touch of Steel Magnolias’ Southern charm laced in, The Help indeed addresses the racial issues via regional etiquettes of the time, but does not over egg the pudding. The film is far more about exploring equal rights for all involved, both in terms of race and gender, and has a lasting, universal appeal that should strike a chord with any marginalised group trying to win a voice.
Stone injects a fresh and contemporary feel to Skeeter, in both appearance and outlook. But it is her intriguing misfit dynamic – living two decades before her time, subliminally exercised at times, that coaxes two of the performance highlights of the lot from Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark and Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson. It is through these actors’ charisma and their characters’ highs and lows and witty and telling retorts that the story unfolds, progresses and ripples outwards to the surrounding cast, as both deliver award-worthy and memorable portrayals of mounting hope, warmth and humanity. Without their input, this tale would be minus its heroines and its soul
In the same light, Bryce Dallas Howard as superior, self-righteous bully, Hilly Holbrook is magnificent, and although the despicable villain of the piece is as vulnerable as the Help she chastises. In this respect, Taylor retains all the book’s nuances, making sure the characters are as complex as the circumstances they encounter, and lifting this story out of the traditional Deep South cinematic mould, but keeping it authentic and engaging.
Jessica Chastain, who has quite an arsenal of films out recently (The Tree Of Life, The Debt etc), gives her most significant career performance yet as ostracised, Marilyn Monroe-look-alike Celia Foote, a lonely woman, unprejudiced and innocently forward-thinking for the time, who simply craves acceptance, much like the Help. Celia is the emotional linchpin in this, and Chastain keeps her believable and adorably naïve, especially in the wonderful ‘cooking coaching’ scenes between Celia and Minny.
Two further mentions should go to Allison Janney as Charlotte Phelan, Skeeter’s mother, and Sissy Spacek as Holbrook Sr., Ahna O’Reilly, both mothers of the previous generation, but open to the changing environment and perhaps dogmatic in their time. Both are superb at mixing intense moments of drama with cutting moments of sharp wit that will have you shedding tears of joy.
This coming of age tale is deeply affecting, magnificently acted and truly enlightening about the effect of volatile transition on the human psyche. In addition to the power of the history behind The Help are truly inspirational women who are an absolute joy to spend time with. Do not miss this.
5/5 stars
By @FilmGazer
