The Help (2011) *****

I would suggest that before watching this movie, you stock up on a stack of tissues… It is a tearjerker, but one with a healthy dose of humour too.  You will laugh and you will cry.  You will want to scream at certain characters and pull your hair out.  Others, you’ll just want to reach out to, to offer comfort.  That’s how real and touching this story is.

Every part is so well acted that it feels like you are in that time period watching the ugly side of the 1950’s America whilst also rejoicing in that fact that there is hope through bravery, kindness and the open-mindedness of a few individuals. 

This is the time of segregated America.  Where black people are treated with no dignity and no humanity, a time where black women have to put their jobs of raising their white charges ahead of raising their own children.  Skeeter (Emma Stone) is a product of that relationship.  She was raised by the family maid, and is one of the very few who reciprocated the love shown to her by her beloved Constantine.  She comes home one day to find Constantine gone and no one can give her true explanation of why she has ‘left.’  This traumatic event, along with her growing disgust at how ‘The Help’ are treated prompts her to catalogue the stories of various maids to educate people on what it is like to be  the help.  Her biggest aid in this endeavour is through Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny.  Everyone’s stories will break your heart, but it is Aibileen’s (or Aibee as her charge likes to call her) that will really tug every corner of your being.  Minny’s will also hurt, but Octavia Spencer’s performance will also make you laugh until it hurts.

A word of warning… You will want to throttle uber-snooty-witch-Hilly’s (Brilliantly acted by Bryce Dallas Howard) neck each time you see her and won’t feel sorry for her hilarious humiliations as she deserves each one.

There are many stories each intertwining all the participants of the story with many different characters.  My favourite is that of Minny and Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain).  This maybe because Celia didn't give a hoot about 'social etiquette' and in her own blundering way managed to form a real relationship with Minny. 

There are lessons still to be learned… the most important being, stand up for what you believe in.  Stand up for your fellow human beings.

The Help teaches us this and many other important lessons in a way that isn’t preachy, but a healthy balance of fun and sobriety.