The Help (2011) 8/10

Starring : Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Ahna O’Reilly, Allison Janney, Anna Camp
Director : Tate Taylor
Running Time : 147 mins

In 1960s Mississippi, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Stone) returns from college determined to become a writer. Taking a job writing a help column for housewives, she starts talking with one of her friend’s housemaids, Aibileen Clark (Davis), and comes up with the idea of writing a book taken from a black maid’s perspective on how they are treated by their white employers.

This entertaining and enlightening perspective on how black maids were treated in the American South of the 1960s – as well as their views on their employers – makes a dramatic yet humorous movie. The performances are understated and wonderful to watch, with my only gripe being the ending which to me didn’t really give much closure to the characters. I guess this leant more realism to the piece, but it was sad not finding out what happened to the various characters involved.

You’ll like this if you liked : Saving Mr Banks