Official Synopsis
The Help is an inspirational, courageous and empowering story about very different, extraordinary women in the 1960s South who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project — one that breaks society’s rules and puts them all at risk.
Writer/director Tate Taylor’s first big outing on a major motion picture turned out really well. He took Kathryn Stockett’s novel and formed a very balanced screenplay. Granted, not all is perfect, but Taylor made sure to even out the serious moments with lighthearted moments. For example, when you see Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) fire Minny (Octavia Spencer) you’ll feel this enormous amount of tension, especially once Minny’s husband finds out that she lost her job. To counter this, Taylor slyly puts in the ‘pie’ scene that builds and builds until the tension of the situation is completely relieved, mainly thanks to Sissy Spacek’s racist mother role Missus Walters who compounds the situation with laughter. The movie has quite a few moments like this. It’s a pleasant ride through a very serious subject that while lighthearted in some areas certainly still doesn’t make light of the overall message at hand, which is racism in the south.
Now, if I did have any complaints over Taylor’s work it would have to be with Skeeter’s love interest, Stuart (played by Chris Lowell) and the ending.
Lowell’s Stuart seemed like a worthless effort. He comes into the film on rocky ground, clashing with Skeeter’s personality then he disappears. He makes a triumphant return towards the end of the film and then, again, disappears (and never resurfaces). It’s a path in the story that I don’t quite get and one that probably could have been nixed. If he offered nothing in Skeeter’s life then it wouldn’t make a difference if he was there or not. Maybe Taylor was trying to keep true to the original story, but nonetheless Lowell’s Stuart is useless in the film version.
The ending, which I won’t ruin, didn’t feel smooth. It felt sudden, short and without much purpose. Again, I won’t ruin it for those who haven’t seen it, but it’s very disconnected from the main body. Granted, you will cry, but it could have been so much better. A better bridge to connect the main story would have been a better structure.
Anyway, overall Taylor does a spectacular job of juggling emotions of the audience and provides some very strong characters to lead the charge.
Speaking of characters, props have to go out to the absolutely spectacular Viola Davis, who leads the story as Aibileen Clark. She is the centerpiece to almost every plot point and she keeps everyone in check. She helps Octavia Spencer’s Minny get through her tough period and she leads Emma Stone’s Skeeter into a world that she has never experienced before; the world of being a maid in Mississippi. I know that a lot of fans of the book had reservations about Davis taking the lead with Aibileen, but I assure you that she plays the role perfectly and with power. She is Aibileen.
Following Davis is the comedy relief of the entire film, Octavia Spencer. Spencer, who mainly does bit parts in television shows and generally small roles in comedies, brings her best work with The Help. She delivers a very amusing, very real role as Minny ‘the pie maker’. She shows her range of comedy and her very refreshing range of drama. I was very happy and surprised with how Taylor wrote up Minny in the movie and how well Octavia Spencer pulled it off. Hopefully she gets more roles in the future outside of movies like Dinner for Schmucks.
Emma Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard were perfect opposites in the film. Stone brought a lot of fire and innocent passion with her hard-headed Skeeter. Stone, who prior to this movie was relegated to zombie and teen flicks, did a superb job in her independent, out of the box thinking Skeeter. She makes the film refreshing and is a good middle between maids and homeowners.
Opposite of her was the very vicious, precise and cunning Hilly Holbrook, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. I’m not sure I can watch her in any other film without feeling just a bit of hate for her. She does a perfect job of playing the antagonist and she is unforgiving in her relentless push to keep blacks in her town of Jackson in their place. She is absolutely phenomenal and when she finally gets what is coming to her you will be absolutely thrilled. Excellent work from Howard, and hopefully more good stuff to come from her in the future.
Taylor also took each character from the book and gave them the maximum amount of depth possible, which is a grave error for young directors/writers generally.
On top of a really great film, you also get a very good Blu-ray. The lighting in The Help allowed for a lot of bright colors that looked absolutely superb in HD. There is little to no graininess and absolutely no artifacts. Having said that, the crisp, clean colors in the film are so vital, as the provide a contrast between white and black lives in the movie. When you watch scenes that involve the white southerners, you get a lot of divid colors and bright blue skies. When the movie switches over to the maids, the colors become drab, the lighting becomes dim and their environment reflects their lives; worn. The movie actually becomes a lot more powerful in HD, which is saying a lot about director Tate Taylor’s intentions and planning.
This is one of those Blu-rays that has an actual purpose for HD, other than just making it look pretty. Excellent job overall.
Having said that, the film comes to you in a 1.85:1 ratio and it sports a 5.1 DTS-HD audio mastering.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– The Making of “The Help:” From Friendship To Film
– In Their Own Words: A Tribute To The Maids Of Mississippi
– Deleted Scenes
– “The Living Proof” music video by Mary J. Blige
While it doesn’t look like much, there is quite a lot here in the special features section. You get a total of five deleted scenes that are actually pretty good. The ‘making of’ featurette is phenomenal, as it slowly takes you through the creation and research that went behind creating the story. On top of that, you get a nice featurette that interviews former maids in Mississippi that is led by director Tate Taylor and actress Octavia Spencer. Regardless of quantity, you get a lot of quality with these features.