THE HELP
THE HELP
americanboy99
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/06
#1THE HELP
Posted: 8/12/11 at 12:23pm
Really loved the film adaptation. Some rough moments and some awkward shifts in tone, but a batch of wonderful performances really anchor the film.
Viola Davis is remarkable and will hopefully earn some Oscar (or at least Golden Globe) buzz for her work.
Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone (who's really growing on me!), Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain (pitch perfect and delightful in every way) all do excellent work.
Perhaps with a more seasoned director, this film could have been incredible, but what we've got is a delightful and the first truly good movie I've seen this summer.
silversurfer2
Broadway Star Joined: 7/20/07
#2THE HELP
Posted: 8/12/11 at 1:17pm
*major spoilers*
I liked it quite a lot as well. It's a difficult novel to adapt, considering how many individualized plot points are introduced over almost 600 pages of text, but I thought Taylor handled them very well for the most part. I liked that he made Mrs. Walters a more sympathetic character and kinder to Minny, as it contrasts with Hilly's spiteful attitude and outright hatred of Minny (and blacks in general). I also thought it was a good idea not to pursue the storyline of Constantine having a "high yellow" daughter that she had to send away for her own safety. It's the kind of thing that can be worked out well over several pages of a novel but would suffer from the limited screen time it would receive. The final confrontation between Aibeleen and Hilly goes further than it does in the book, which worked for me. Hilly perpetrates her acts of racial hatred as a form of Christian charity (like when she tells Yule May that she won't give her a loan because "God doesn't give charity to those who are well and able"), so Aibeleen calling her "a Godless woman" is the ultimate insult one can hurl to crack her veneer. Davis and Howard played the scene, which could easily be an opportunity for scenery chewing, extremely tactfully.
I wasn't happy with the way that Stuart's and Skeeter's relationship was treated; I never believed that he liked her because she was iconoclastic and different from the other Jackson girls, and in the end it was edited down to being so inconsequential that it could have been cut all together. (Chris Lowell's monotonous, one-note performance doesn't help either) I also never felt like the relationships between Skeeter and the other girls in her circle were defined enough. Remember that she and Hilly were supposed to be best friends since childhood; here, you get the impression that they are just two girls in the same social circle who tolerate each other. We never feel that closeness, so we never get to see Skeeter's conflicted feelings about "betraying" the person who is supposedly her closest friend. I also would have liked a little more self-doubt from Minny as she tries to leave her abusive husband; in the book, it's something she struggles with, while here it happens in one split second.
The acting is superb. On paper, Viola Davis is miscast as Aibeleen--there isn't even the hint of a mammy in her sleek, attractive frame (I want the trainer who worked her towards those arms!), so it feels false when she says that children are drawn to her because "babies love fat, and fat legs." But she can convey more with a look than most actresses can in a monologue, and I really believed Aibeleen's journey from accepting servant to strong, independent woman. Stockett wrote Minny with Octavia Spencer in mind, so it's no surprise that she's perfect. Bryce Dallas Howard added serious shades to a character that is essentially a cut-and-dry villain. Jessica Chastain was wonderful as Celia, and Sissy Spacek was outrageous (in the best possible way) as Mrs. Walters. Allison Janney was great as Mrs. Phelan, although I didn't love that Skeeter knew from the beginning that she was suffering from cancer. It altered their relationship.
Emma Stone didn't do it for me. I never believed that she possessed Skeeter's drive to be taken seriously--as a woman, as a writer, as a daughter.
Also worth mentioning that there are tons of theatre actors in smaller roles: in addition to Davis, Howard, Janney and Chastain, LaChanze plays Rachael, Constantine's daughter; Roslyn Ruff plays Skeeter's family maid, Pascagoula; Brian Kerwin plays Skeeter's father; Anna Camp plays Jolene, one of Skeeter's friends from the Junior League; Dana Ivey has a cameo in a very important scene; and David Oyelowo plays Aibeleen's pastor, Preacher Green. The great Cicely Tyson plays the small role of Constantine memorably.
pushdabutton
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/2/05
redmustang
Broadway Star Joined: 5/14/03
#5THE HELP
Posted: 8/13/11 at 7:30pm
It's a hit. On track to bring in about $31-$33 million by Sunday night. Based on the stats it's also on the path to the $100 million club.
Oscar buzz has been surprisingly low on this so far, but if it turns into the hit it's shaping up to be then I would say Viola Davis has a chance at a nomination.
But it's already a crowded field with Meryl Streep and Kirsten Dunst getting tons of attention and prizes for Iron Lady and Melancholia respectively.
Q
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/3/05
Corine2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/14/03
alovingfan
Featured Actor Joined: 12/30/10
Corine2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/14/03
#10THE HELP
Posted: 8/13/11 at 11:49pm
Wonderful acting, bad script. It plays and looks like STEEL MAGNOLIAS mixed with THE COLOR PURPLE.
The film is doing pretty well since it opened on Wednesday. It is predicted to make $20-23 million by Sunday.
The writer and director are close friends; hence the sort of unknown director having this film project.
The actress playing white trash Celia steals the film and is the one who deserves a nomination; Viola is predictably wonderful in a cliched role.
When all is said and done, wouldn't it be nice for black women to have roles besides THE HELP? This is the sort of character we have seen on film since the 1930s and we have not come very far, have we?
And this is the first time I am unimpressed with Emma Stone; she and Allison Janney have little chemistry and look nothing like mother and daughter.
#12THE HELP
Posted: 8/14/11 at 9:43am
I think Viola Davis will be in the running for a Best Actress nomination. I'd like to see Jessica Chastain nominated, as well.
When all is said and done, wouldn't it be nice for black women to have roles besides THE HELP? This is the sort of character we have seen on film since the 1930s and we have not come very far, have we?
It's a film about the lives of domestics in the 1960s south. Do you suggest they cast Kate Winslet and Charlize Theron? Besides, the way the maids are presented in this film are a far cry from Hattie McDaniels in GONE WITH THE WIND or Ethel Waters in PINKY.
#13THE HELP
Posted: 8/14/11 at 9:54am
I'm so sick of people saying things like "I can't believe such great actresses are reduced to playing parts like this". I've seen it all over TV and the interwebs about this film and it's RIDICULOUS. Viola Davis is wonderful in this film and she wasn't "reduced" to playing the role. She ACCEPTED it. They didn't take her by the hair, bash her head in a mirror and threaten to curb her if she didn't do it. She obviously wanted to it and to tell this story so please stop acting like it's such a shame black actors have to play black characters in stories centered around black people.
And that poor Angela Bassett coming to Broadway playing a maid. Such a shame someone of her caliber has to play someone so utterly classless and lowly as a...*gulp* maid. They really should have made her character an heiress or at the very least an alien queen so she wouldn't have to embarrass herself and other people by portraying something as disgusting as a domestic. It's insulting to humanity.
#14THE HELP
Posted: 8/14/11 at 11:15am
While the whole cast is impressive, my hunch is that Davis and Spencer are the best bets at nominations. With the Venice/Telluride/Toronto awards-bait onslaught only days away, I’d argue that Davis and Spencer are the two strongest female contenders from the first eight months of the year. (Other longshot candidates so far: Hanna‘s Saoirse Ronan for lead and Bridesmaids‘ Melissa McCarthy or Win Win‘s Amy Ryan for supporting.)
Of course Davis and Spencer will both face much tougher competition over the next four months: The Iron Lady‘s Meryl Streep, We Need to Talk About Kevin‘s Tilda Swinton, Carnage‘s Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster, Young Adult‘s Charlize Theron, My Week With Marilyn‘s Michelle Williams, Albert Nobbs‘ Glenn Close, and War Horse‘s Emily Watson are all on their way. But after this year’s shut-out of African-American acting nominees, there’s a decent shot next year’s contenders will be more racially diverse.
Can the ladies of The Help score Oscar noms?
nmartin
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/3/05
theaternut
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/4/03
Q
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/3/05
#19THE HELP
Posted: 8/14/11 at 2:03pm
I saw the movie yesterday and absolutely loved it. Laughter and tears all the way around. I enjoyed the book as well. I thought all of the actresses were wonderful and really liked Emma Stone.
I didn't realize La Chanze was in it until the credits rolled. I have no idea who she was in the movie (Rachel).
As I'm really not a big movie person. I usually only see 1 or 2 a year, but I will definitely be heading back to see this one again.
#20THE HELP
Posted: 8/14/11 at 2:29pmLaChanze played the daughter of Constantine (Cicely Tyson), Skeeter's former maid.
JbaraFan1
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/04
#22THE HELP
Posted: 8/15/11 at 1:03pm
theaternut, with all due respect, I fail to see any problem with Corine's post. Anyone would have to have read the book, seen the movie, or learn some other way exactly what that scene is about. If it's that pivotal, I'd think readers of the book (in case you feel it was too much a spoiler even for them) would pretty much expect it to be included in the movie, so I don't see how she's giving too much away. But just mentioning the word like she did and saying the scene about it is in the movie -- sorry, but I don't see the big deal. JMO
Okay, so that out of the way, I really liked the movie. I saw some parallels with how I was brought up, in a rural farming community about 200 miles north of Jackson. Yeah, my mother employed Black maids when my siblings and I were growing up. They did everything (including caring for me) *except* cook, which my mother solely claimed as her territory in our house.
I remember plenty of times, when my mother threatened me with a spanking, that one of the maids would plead with her to please not spank me. (Sometimes it worked, others not, but either way, I felt like I had someone on my side.) That part of the story -- how these Black maids cared for these white children -- I especially "got" because I experienced it.
There were differences in the movie compared with what I remember, such as: the women who worked for my mother did not wear uniforms, just their regular clothes. They used our bathroom. They ate, not at the same time as us, but at the same table or counter in our kitchen as us (although there was no problem with me sitting and talking with them, or perhaps even finishing my meal, while they ate).
It may be hard for anyone, black or white, who didn't personally experience that sort of environment, to understand how, to such a great extent, this racial caste system was just accepted as the norm by so many in the South (whites especially, but by many blacks also). I read an article on the Daily Mail (UK) site by the author of "The Help" (link included with post) in which she writes of her childhood and the family maid:
It was probably the most intimate relationship I've ever had with someone who wasn't related to me. And yet, as much as we loved Demetrie, she had a separate bathroom located on the outside of the house.
I never once sat down to eat with her at the table. I never saw her – except the day she lay in her coffin – dressed in anything but that white uniform.
I am ashamed to admit that it took me 20 years to realise the irony of that relationship.
That is so true -- how the irony of these relationships (in whatever way it manifested itself) was lost on many of us southern white kids in those days, not really hitting us until we were much older and, hopefully by then, wiser.
Anyway, having seen the movie now, it makes me want to check out the book sometime too.
This Life: Kathryn Stockett on her childhood in the Deep South | Mail Online
Bluemoon
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/28/04
#23THE HELP
Posted: 8/15/11 at 1:16pm
I saw the film over the weekend and really enjoyed it.
Jbarafan - thanks for sharing your perspective with us. Did you grow up in the 60s? If so, were you living there during the Civil Rights movement, King's assasination, etc? Did your family's maids ever comment on the struggles?
#24THE HELP
Posted: 8/15/11 at 1:34pmMy mother's family maid was very involved in the civil rights movement and very open about it. That said, this was in Philadelphia, which probably fostered a different dynamic than were she living in the south. I know she could have been as open were she living and working in a place like Mississippi or Alabama.
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