The Help

“The Help” this summer’s “feel-good” movie feels good due to convincing performances and characters as well as lots of laughs to make audiences feel even better.

Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone) recently graduated from college comes back home to Jackson, Mississippi and starts work at The Jackson Journal writing a cleaning column. Needing help on her column and knowing nothing about the topic she asks help from a friend’s maid, Aibileen (Viola Davis).

While learning from Aibileen she also learns of the hardships of “the help”. She finally convinces Aibileen to share her stories so they can be published to make a change. Along the way other maids share their secrets as well, including Aibileen’s closest friend the tough and bold Minnie (Octavia Spencer). The group also makes enemies such as Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) who controls all the social circles in Jackson.

“The Help” brings a strong cast to the screen. The struggles that Aibileen and Minnie face because of their race and the courage they find to stand up are perfectly portrayed by Davis and Spencer. Also the sadness of Aibileen at the death of her son is heart-breaking for audiences to watch.

Stone also gives a strong performance as the no-nonsense Skeeter that also speaks her mind. Stone also manages to handle the emotional parts as her characters finds out what happened to her childhood maid while she was gone. Also the way her character deals with her pushy mother who is always trying to get her married and how their relationship changes is solidly performed by Stone.

Howard villainous character provides the audiences with a good bad guy to root against. Howard portrays Hilly’s hatred for Minnie (and other characters) along with her complete apathy for what happens to them are acted believably; particularly when her character comes completely enraged at Skeeter.

“The Help” also provides an adequate story and characters. The plot moves at a decent pace with obstacles for characters to overtake. The three main characters, Skeeter, Aibileen and Minnie are well-developed and audiences get to know and care about the characters as the movie progresses.

However some characters are less-developed such as Stuart (Chris Lowell), Skeeter’s boy-friend who gets about three scenes and so their relationship is not as expanded as it needs to be. Same with Leroy, Minnie’s abusive husband who fails to even appear on screen but proves to be big factor for Minnie’s choices.

“The Help” is not focused on Civil Rights or racism as much as it concentrates on the bravery that Skeeter, Aibileen and Minnie use to stand up to the social standards of Jackson. “The Help” also flawlessly blends the serious elements with comedy and balances each part in such a way that it’s not too funny or too serious. With strong characters and more importantly strong acting, “The Help” fails to need any.