GRADE: A-
RATING: 3.5/4
Call me whatever you wish critics, but The Help is easily one of my favorite films of the year. With an unforgettable ensemble cast that will receive multiple Oscar nominations, I couldn’t help but get chills all throughout the film. Then again, I haven’t read the book, so what do I know?
Eugene “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone) is a young white woman born into a rich family and higher class social circle. In a world where black people are nothing, Skeeter and her lack of racism beliefs don’t quite fit in with the rest of the world around her, especially in Mississippi.
As the film begins she recently graduated from the University of Mississippi, but only comes home to find that her past maid, Constantine (Cicely Tyson) had quit and moved away, and considering Constantine practically raised Skeeter, it came as quite the shock.
Skeeter begins warming up to her friends’ maids Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer). The more she is around them the more she despises the way her friends treat their “help” and Skeeter soon develops the idea to write a book on the trouble these Jackson maids have been going through their entire lives.
At this point racism is a very powerful thing, but if these three girls are lucky other maids will join in and share their stories, and just maybe the world will open up to them.
I honestly don’t know where to start. Tate Taylor’s writing and directorial debut couldn’t have been more impressive, making very few mistakes. The musical score was great, and so was the costume design. But really, we all know why The Help was as good as it was, the acting.
Viola Davis turns in the performance of her career, and if she doesn’t win Best Actress at the Oscars I am going to run through my home screaming and pitching a fit like a little girl. The first time I saw her on-screen was in Doubt, what a piece that was, but here she is something else. An actress cannot get any more believable than her, we can talk all night (and I assure you I will) about Spencer, Stone, Chastain, Howard, Spacek and even Tyson, but the real masterful work is in Davis’ hands.
However, all of the other actresses that play a big part in this film are in their top form as well (except for Chastain, that goes to The Tree of Life). I may feel differently after I finish my marathon, but as of right now I think Octavia Spencer hands down deserves the Best Supporting Actress award. I have seen her in so many different things in my life, but she has never been this good.
Emma Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard really put on a show too. Howard was phenomenal in the sense of perfectly getting into her character, brilliantly capturing all that she was meant to be. And Emma Stone, an actress that I have always found annoying since I first saw her a year ago, even she was great. The ensemble cast was incredible, plain and simple, the best of the year.
I will even go far enough to give Cicely Tyson a shout out. She was not in the film very much, but when she was… chill bumps again. Fantastic.
Final Word – 99.9% of movies made do not have performances good enough to carry a film entirely. The Help is not a part of that statistic, which I just completely made up. Obviously.