'The Help' Historical Drama is Well Worth the View

The Help is a tender and funny drama that gives a new spin on an old issue—old, but not necessarily gone. It’s a story of heartbreak, change and hope that is wrapped in historical drama, with a few characters that seem to jump off the screen in their earnestness and courage. 

“How does it feel to raise a white child when your own child is at home, being raised by someone else?” asked Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (played beautifully by Emma Stone) to one of the African-American maids in her 1962 Jackson, MS community in the opening scene.

There's no long, esoteric opening to leave you wondering what this movie is about—it's about racism.

The stories of women in two "worlds"—maids, the children they raise, and the women for whom they work—are woven together against the backdrop of the early 1960s rumblings of the Civil Rights Movement.

Skeeter has one foot in each world, and is trying to use that position to propagate social change, despite the pull of her mother and friends on one side, and the fear of the maids on the other.

Aibileen (Viola Davis), one of the maids, leads a movement of her peers, who at first refuse to talk to Skeeter about their experiences.  Aibileen has a journal of her own stories, thoughts and feelings, but not only has she never been asked to tell them aloud, she has never had permission.

There is a bit of Hollywood flattening of the plot and characters in The Help. For the most part, I found myself loving the ones I was supposed to, and hating the ones I was supposed to. But in there were also a few surprises; unexpected complexities in both the plot and characters that gave this film some chops.

Davis’ understated acting clearly stole the show, and I fully expect an Oscar nod to come out of this performance.

There was uniform laughter from the packed theater at times, and several times (including 20 minutes at the end, for me) where the term “tear-jerker” certainly applied.

The complexity of women’s relationships and how they tie into the issues of the era, including following social mores of inequality, portrayed a sense of hope, especially knowing how, 50 years later, much has changed.

“I loved it!” shared Nancy Sacks of Pikesville. “It was well-acted and restores your faith in people … although all of these issues aren’t solved, still.” Susan Kurlander, also of Pikesville, already read . She said the film “captured the essence of the book,” although of course some details had to be modified or left out entirely.

The book was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller.

The Help is full of humor, heart and thought-provoking questions. It’s a story well worth telling, and a film well worth adding to your must-see list before summer’s end. 

Playing at AMC Owings Mills 17

Coming Soon: One Day.