The Help

2011

PG-13

2h 26m

IMDb RATING

8.2/10

8.8K

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Drama

Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.

Directors

Tate Taylor

Writers

Tate Taylor(screenplay by)

Kathryn Stockett(novel by)

Stars

Emma Stone

Viola Davis

Bryce Dallas Howard

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Videos10

Photos144

Top cast

Skeeter Phelan

Aibileen Clark

Hilly Holbrook

Minny Jackson

Celia Foote

Elizabeth Leefolt

Charlotte Phelan

Jolene French

Mae Mobley

Mae Mobley

Stuart Whitworth

Constantine Jefferson

Johnny Foote

Missus Walters

Robert Phelan

Carlton Phelan

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Yule Mae Davis

Ted Welch

William Holbrook

Directors

Tate Taylor

Writers

Tate Taylor(screenplay by)

Kathryn Stockett(novel by)

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Review

Featured review

7/10

I hadn’t quite realised the extent to which racial segregation laws permeated into every day life, especially when a black person couldn't cut a white child’s hair or write anything remotely disparaging about their white brethren. “Skeeter” (Emma Stone) returns from college and decides there might be a way around this. She will write the book, but a selection of women from their Mississippi homes will provide the meat for this literary sandwich. These women are maids who all have stories to tell, but she faces quite a battle convincing them to spill any beans. That’s partly from loyalty, partly from fear and also because they all know that the local community on all sides is disinclined to rock the boat. It’s to “Aibileen” (Viola Davis) she initially turns and after some persuasion she begins to open up - and boy is it juicy! It’s not just a chance to open some eyes, but it gives the author a chance to re-evaluate her relationship with her own mother (Allison Janney) and with friends “Hilly” (Bruce Dallas Howard) and their odious friend “Celia” (Jessica Chastain) as well as a cast of family retainers who had more to do with bring up the children than any of their privileged parents ever did. When “Minny” (Octavia Spencer) gets sacked and a second source comes on stream for the book, the ridiculousness of, and hypocrisies that prevail in, this society are increasingly laid bare amidst attitudes of visceral hatred. Janney and Howard deliver well, crafting characters it’s easy to relate to - even in quiet a loathsome fashion, and both Spencer and Davis elicit sympathy but not cloyingly - it’s clear that they are worth ten of their wealthier and entitled employers. The boys don’t really feature so much here which allows a focus on the narrative uncluttered by romance, and there’s even a little from Sissy Spacek to add a little extra finesse to what is at times quite a subtly performed indictment of ignorance and bullying. Chocolate pie, anyone?

Geronimo196708 Feb, 2025