The Help
I barely squeezed this one in before the Oscars on Sunday... that way, I was able to form all sorts of opinions I then kept to myself...
Roll Call: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, and Sissy Spacek. Tate Taylor and Kathryn Stockett, writers. Tate Taylor, director.
What's It About: The Help tells the story of pseudo-society girl Skeeter Phelan's (Emma Stone- awesome as usual, but a bit underrated compared to her cast mates) efforts to write a tell-all book from the perspective of African-American servants in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi.
What About It: Depending on who you talk or listen to, this is either an insightful, period piece that digs deep into an essential American problem...or it's a sugary, stereotype-reinforcing flick designed to show that African-Americans could never have made it above their lot as house servants and such without the help of the white savior. Ok, so maybe those aren't the only two descriptions out there, but they are two of the ones asserted most vociferously... even if boiling the movie down as such is a bit ridiculous. The truth- in all likelihood- is somewhere in the middle. Was it fluffy? Yeah...in spots. Did it perpetuate stereotypes? Well... that depends. I'd say no-insofar as if you're telling this specific story then these folks aren't stereotypes, they're characters. I'd also argue that this is an instance where the white savior motif is only true to those who didn't see the movie... or at least didn't see it with an open mind. Sure, Skeeter was white... and she was necessary to document the "Help's" (as servants are known in the movie) tales (let's not forget where and when we are here), but Skeeter wasn't inventing the stories. She needed the servants to stick their necks on the line, open up, and call it how they'd seen it. Skeeter needed the Help as much as they needed her. And, I'd also point out, the African American characters were the ones given the better sense of dimension to their characters. Most of the white society girls come off as one-note plot devices. Played to great effect, but still. Most of the white characters are given unspoken labels: "she's the _____ one." The only white characters to escape this are Skeeter and Jessica Chastain's flighty Celia Foote- and even then, only at times. Again, though, it plays well in the film. I just wish that all the characters were as richly developed as Viola Davis's Aibileen Clark and Octavia Spencer's Minny Jackson. Aibileen and Minny are the meat of the movie, everyone else is just dressing. (Though both Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain were fantastic. So was Bryce Dallas Howard and Allison Janney for that matter- it's more just that their characters were so shallow that it was hard to notice how spot on they were).
Clearly this was the Viola Davis-Octavia Spencer show (it's actually damn shame Viola Davis didn't win the Best Actress Oscar- it's not that Meryle Streep was bad; she was great in what had to be a daunting role in The Iron Lady- it's just that Davis crushed it here. I didn't think anyone would be able to top Michelle Williams from My Week With Marilyn but Davis damn near made me forget that role. She was amazing). And take that to heart. I'm not going to go so far as to say that they are the only reason to watch the movie- it's actually a well-done... and... nice...flick. But Davis and Spencer are definitely worth the price of admission. Every time the story wanted them to break out the caricature, Davis and Spencer resisted. I'm sure that to some, these two did represent stereotypes. Soulful (Davis) and Sassy (Spencer). I'd just urge anyone who thought that way to look closer. They both refused to let Aibileen and Minny become anything short of multifaceted and complex human beings... you know, like real people. (I suppose, as a white male, this may be one of those cases where my opinion doesn't matter all that much... but...hell... this is my blog and these are my two cents... just calling them how I see them. For better or worse). I guess I could sum it up as this: if you like the feeling of getting to know your movie characters, you'll like what you see here with Davis and Spencer. They brought their characters to life. It was great to see.
The Bottom Line: I'd venture to say that if you like a movie that's able to evoke a time and place pretty darn well while also bringing richly developed characters to life, you'll probably like The Help. Is it perfect? No. Does it simplify and... fluff--ify a real complex issue? Yes. But... well... in a sense... so what? It was entertaining, superbly acted, and just heavy enough to keep it grounded- even amidst the fluff. It may not change your life...but who said it needed to? It's just a movie. And a pretty darn good one at that.
Grade: A
