The Help Movie Reviews

What is pleasantly surprising and distinctive about The Help, adapted from Kathryn Stockett's best-selling debut novel of the same name, is that though it conveys lucidly the disturbing racial injustice in 1960s America, it does so without melodrama or too many clichés. Viola Davis plays Aibileen Clark, a black maid in the southern state of Mississippi at a time when the civil rights movement is gathering momentum in America. Self-effacing, and stoical

Just when we thought that social issues had been shot dead and buried by Hollywood — overdosing on 3D and heist flicks — there comes The Help which once again takes up cudgels against racism. The Oscar-winning Crash (2004) was a strong indictment of the still-prevalent prejudice. Director Taylor’s film, however, returns to the early 1960s when blacks in the Deep South were being oppressed as if they were ‘slaves’ of the whites

The mission is simple -- Skeeter Phelan is a newly empowered (fresh graduate) white woman in the southern city of Mississippi in the 1960s who wants to write a bestseller. Finding the subject is even simpler -- she chooses to interview the likes of Aibileen Clark ( Viola Davis), her best friend's African American help. But then there's a price Skeeter's got to pay for the desired fame and fortune. After all, she's all out to write about the experiences of a domestic help

It's easy to see why 'The Help', a rousing melodrama about racial prejudice set in 1960s Mississippi, became an instant crowd-pleaser when it released in the United States this summer. Like 2009's shrewdly sentimental Sandra Bullock starrer The Blind Side, this is a patronizing tale that addresses white guilt and cleverly mitigates it. To be fair though, 'The Help' is genuinely moving, it has moments of delightful humor, and it's held together by two spectacular performances

In the fantastic 2008 drama Doubt, Viola Davis is on screen for less than 15 minutes. Yet, in a movie starring acting heavyweights such as Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Davis' performance was one that garnered so much acclaim that she snagged a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars that year. In The Help, Davis gets a fully-fleshed out role she can sink her teeth into, and it is a testament to her talent that she overshadows current Hollywood it-girl Emma Stone

The Help Review: Business rating: 1.5 stars. What’s Good: The well-written screenplay; the dramatic confrontatio...