At the Movies with Fatwayne

The Help is billed as a comedy/drama and to be truthful, it is. I found it to be more drama than comedy although there were some high spirited moments to be sure. You may never eat a chocolate pie again! The actors who embody the “help” are marvelous in their character and determination to fight back against the injustices they are forced to endure on a daily basis. This is an expose (so to speak) about racial relations in the South (Jackson, Mississippi) in the early 1960′s.

It is a story about the maids who work for the privileged white folks. They clean, they cook and most importantly, they raise their white babies as their own. Due to the fact that they are black, they are forbidden to use the inside toilets or to drink from the family’s water glasses. There are many more examples of how life was for them during that era which makes you wonder how this type of bigotry could occur.

One thing that irked me was the way the film seemed to lump all white people into a class with a privileged and heartless mentality. There is no doubt that such people existed and probably still do but I am dubious that the greater part of the caucasian society shared their sentiments. I know that growing up in the deep south I witnessed discrimination but I never harbored resentment to anyone just because of their skin pigment. 

The story centers around three women, two black maids and one white woman. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone) is recently graduated from college and has aspirations to become a writer. She was raised by a maid and developed deep affection for the woman. She comes to discover that her beloved mother figure has been fired by her family so that they would look good to their high society friends. She gets the idea to write a book about what it is like to be a maid in Jackson.

After some bit of difficulty, Skeeter convinces Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and her friend Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer)’ who are both African-American maids, to tell their stories. It isn’t too long before more of the maids decide to jump on board and share their tales.

Once the book is published, the “shit hits the fan” and many of the hoitytoity ladies see themselves depicted within the pages of the book as some of their most embarrassing secrets are revealed for all to see. So in the end some of the injustices are mended but as we all know, there will still be a lot of work to be done. I found it to be a most entertaining movie experience and one that ends on a light note which is just the way I like it.

Rated  -  PG13  -

Fatwayne’s Rating   

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