The Help Review

The Help is an emotional, heart-felt story, based on the New York Times best- selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. Set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960’s, this is a story which revolves around the lives of African-American maids, and their white employers. The focus is primarily on two black maids, Aibileen(Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer) who reveal their horrific stories to Skeeter (Emma Stone), an ambitious young white writer. The women openly speak about their lives as maids; they cook, they clean, they shop for groceries, and they raise their employer’s children. The two women develop a special friendship with Skeeter, as they secretly work on a writing project that could risk their lives, while hoping to expose the truth; race in the South during the 1960’s. This is a powerful and inspiring movie about courage, and doing the right thing.

Rating: Five out of five buckets
Release Date: December 6, 2011
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 14+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language

See a clip of my review here!

Talking Points:

It was heartbreaking to see how cruel these white, pretentious women were to their help. These women had their maids take care of their children, (which the maids did in a loving tender way), but they demanded that separate restrooms were to be built for the maids.

There were some humorous parts in the movie. For those of you that read the book you may remember the “pie incident.” I don’t want to give too much away, but Minny baked a pie for Hilly (an awful women who just fired Minny). Minny added a “special ingredient.” Though disgusting, it’s quite funny.

The movie was 137 minutes, which sounds long, but it’s not. With the intriguing story, you don’t even realize the time. There are many sub-plots as well, which add interest to the story line.

The acting was absolutely amazing, to name a few actors; Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.

Sexual Content: Mild

• Passionate kissing.

• One character wears revealing low cut outfits.

Violent Content: Moderate

• Minny’s husband was abusive. We don’t see the abuse, but we hear violent arguments that are disturbing. In one scene her black eye is revealed.

• A police officer arrests a maid, he is forceful and abusive. He hits her with his baton…it’s a very brief scene, but disturbing.

• One character has a miscarriage, we see her on the bathroom floor, surrounded by blood.

Crude or Profane Language: Moderate

• The n-word, d-word, a-word, h-word are used several times throughout the film.

Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate

• Many characters drink and smoke in social settings.

The Help is an eye-opener, it’s hard to believe that people could treat other people with such heartbreaking disrespect. The subject matter won’t appeal to young kids, however I know many teenage girls that have read the book, and can’t wait to see the movie. It will be an eye-opener for them as well, but a good lesson.

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