Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan (Emma Stone) comes home to her Mississippi small town and decides to write a book about her community from the perspective of the African American maids who take care of all of her and her white friends’ needs. She is assisted by Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), while societal queen bee Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) lords over her fellow housewives unknowingly giving the maids more fodder for Skeeter’s expose.

CRITIQUE

Here’s what I wrote about The Help back in July:

“Set right at the start of the Civil Rights movement and taking place in that hotbed of ferocious racial animosity the good old state of Mississippi, The Help is a remarkably confident and sensationally acted melodrama that never loses sight of who its main characters are and the real story it wants to tell. Skeeter may be the protagonist who gets the ball rolling, but the tale being spun isn’t hers. It is instead that of Aibileen and Minny, the two of them the raging heart and soul of the piece and the ones everything else going on revolves around.

I haven’t read Kathryn Stockett’s beloved novel but I can only assume that she has to be pleased with screenwriter and director Tate Taylor’s (Pretty Ugly People) borderline astonishing adaptation. While not everything is perfect, and while some sequences (most notably the flashbacks) do tend to go in an overly melodramatic direction, the majority of the film is admittedly stunning. The central dynamic between Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter rings with a truthful poignancy that hit me right in the throat, and while I wasn’t drowning in my own tears at any one point I wouldn’t be being entirely truthful if I didn’t admit to reaching for the Kleenex on more than a couple of occasions.

It helps that the acting is universally stunning. Davis and Spencer will get the majority of the accolades, deservedly so, but Howard, [Allison] Janney, Sissy Spacek (playing Hilly’s flighty yet feisty mother) and especially Jessica Chastain (playing a societal outcast who under Minny’s guidance discovers a fortitude she didn’t know existed) are equally amazing. Even when the script drips into schmaltzy platitude all of them rise to such heights they make even the most saccharine of emotional outbursts feel genuine. They collectively drive this film’s engine, and as ensembles go this is the best one I’m likely to see assembled in all of 2011.

But the reason The Help ultimately becomes something extraordinary, the reason it is likely to become an audience sensation and factor into the year-end awards season, is that Taylor never loses sight that Aibileen is his central heroine and not Skeeter. While the latter is important, it is the former whose corner we must always be in. It is her journey, her saga, her dream of a better life and of hopefully having a hand in obtaining one for future generations that makes the movie what it is.

Unlike so many other pictures that have tackled these types of stories this one remembers that the African American experience in the South during the Civil Rights movement is one that should be seen through African American eyes. But at the same time, he also remembers that not every indignity has an audience-friendly resolution, that just because we want a woman to rise up and put another in their place that doesn’t mean they are going to do it. There are nuances to every story and not every backbone gets rigid and becomes unbreakable when faced with opposition; for every story of triumph there are countless more failures that only a generational sea change can fix.

I could go on, waxing poetic about everything from Thomas Newman’s (The Adjustment Bureau) score, to Stephen Goldblatt’s (Charlie Wilson’s War) cinematography, to Mark Ricker’s (Conviction) editing, to Sharen Davis’ (The Book of Eli) costume design, but the bottom line is that The Help speaks better for itself than I ever could on its behalf. Taylor has instantly cemented himself as a director of merit and one deserving of keeping an eye on, delivering the type of big, star-driven Hollywood production that’s as intelligent and as thought-provoking as it is entertainingly worthwhile.”

I didn’t quite love The Help as much the second time around, I have to admit that right upfront. I found Taylor’s script to be full of quite a few more holes and to be a bit more on the overly melodramatic side then I originally wanted to comment on that first time around, and while the acting is undeniably exceptional there are some structural problems impossible to ignore.

Still, this is a very good movie overall and I love the fact the filmmakers remember to keep the point of view consistent and remember whose story it is that they are telling. I did enjoy the film the second time around, and I imagine I’ll have no trouble putting it back in the Blu-ray player again at some near point down the line.

THE VIDEO

The Help is presented on a dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video with 1.85:1/1080p transfer.

THE AUDIO

The Help comes to Blu-ray with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track along with English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 tracks and includes English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Extras here include:

·         The Making of 'The Help': From Friendship to Film (23 minutes)

·         In Their Own Words: A Tribute to the Maids of Mississippi (12 minutes)

·         Deleted Scenes (10 minutes)

·         Mary J. Blige The Living Proof Music Video (3 minutes)

Both featurettes are exclusive to the Blu-ray, but only In Their Own Words is worthy of more than a single look. As for the deleted scenes (about seven minutes of which are exclusive to the Blu-ray), none of them should have remained in the film, although the one director Tate Taylor labels as a ‘downer’ is actually kind of powerful and puts a decidedly different spin on the film.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Help is a solid film showcasing incredible performances by a bevy of incredibly talented actresses and is sure to please fans of solid dramatic cinema.