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Melanie's Review of The Help

The Help has literally left me spent. After watching this film, I was a red-eyed, snotty mess.

Yet I couldn’t be happier.

I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie where I feel like it changed me, and The Help has changed me.

The film, based on the 2009 novel by Kathryn Socket, delves into the lives of women on both sides of the racial fence in early 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi.

The Help has done an amazing job translating a microcosm of pre-Civil Rights America into a heartfelt yet hopeful film.

Given that this film is adapted and directed by relative rookie filmmaker Tate Taylor, this film is even more extraordinary.

Taylor has done a smart thing by simply hiring the best actors and letting them do their job. The Help feels very natural and organic as a film and will likely be nominated for and win a truckload of Oscars come next February. It is also going to be quite the star vehicle for Emma Stone (Easy A, Zombieland).

Stone is absolutely brilliant as “Skeeter” Phelan, the oddball in a group of highbrow hoity-toity Southern Belles. Her character is the only woman in her social circle with a college education who’s also recently employed and not married. Her character is deeply misunderstood by her friends and family, with not even her own mother understanding how Skeeter is okay with the path she’s chosen.

Stone has taken what could have been a one-dimensional, and potentially clichéd, character and breathed beautiful life into her. The young actress clearly has a very long career in front of her.

The film’s other standout is the sly and conniving character of Hilly Holbrook, played by Bryce Dallas Howard (Spider-Man 3, The Village). She’s been a personal favourite of mine since watching her in M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water.

Howard, whom gives off an other-worldliness to her characters, wasn’t easy to get used to at first in a villainous role. It’s a testament to Howard’s acting abilities that she sinks right into this character.

The “help” in The Help are played by Viola Davis (Doubt, Law Abiding Citizen) and Octavia Spencer (Seven Pounds, Drag Me To Hell) â€" the two actors that form the heart of this film.

Aibileen Clark, played by Davis, is a broken woman whose only joy is derived from taking care of the daughter of the family she works for. Davis nails the constant downcast gaze, the fear, and the body language of someone who’s carrying around the weight of the world.

Her best friend and lifeline, Minny Jackson (played by Spencer), is a spunky and sassy woman who doesn’t take “nothin from nobody.” Spencer, like Stone, takes a character that could have been the stock Noble Black Person and made her into a real woman who seems very strong on the outside, but also has her own burdens in life.

I can’t speak of the women in this movie without mentioning the small roles held by Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life, the upcoming film The Debt), Allison Janney and Sissy Spacek. Chastain â€" the film’s scene stealer â€" is stellar in this film, as well as Spacek, who displays remarkable comedic timing.

The Help is definitely my favourite movie of the year so far. It’s not a “summer blockbuster”, but it still took me on a roller coaster ride of emotions. It’s a must-see that explores the resilience of the human spirit and our capacity, even in the face of struggles, for unconditional love.

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