The Help

Written and Directed by Tate Taylor

This film is a typical portrait of the black fight in the American History and it’s a typical film where they are constantly pulling the tear out of you and it’s beautifully made. But before going further I need to emphasize the cast and their beautiful performances. They were so good, all of them. Just the way each of them stands out.

The film starts and we are introduced to a black housekeeper named Aibileen (Viola Davis) where she’s confessing something significant about her life. We are soon introduced to the perfect society of white girls, leaded by Hilly Hollbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard). Skeeter (Emma Stone) joins them in this tea party. She just arrived from college and got a job on a local newspaper and is determined to be a successful writer. We are in the Mississippi during the 1960s so there’s a clear and unbreakable segregation. Skeeter is a different girl. She’s independent as a woman and she has a sense of mutual respect towards black people. In the little aspect of just saying thanks as the housekeeper pours her a cup of tea. She asks for the help of Aibileen for her column, but soon she has the idea of interviewing the black women who spent their lives taking care of these southern families like Skeeter’s. We see Skeeter loosing friends but also becoming a real woman. We see Aibileen’s best friend and housekeeper Minny (Octavia Spencer) being the attitude between this group of women and her witty sense that makes her create an unlikely bond between her new boss Celia (Jessica Chastain), an outcast with a huge heart but a solitary because Hilly denies her presence in the club. The housekeepers, also called the help, have to face huge fears, but they join together, they fight and the lives of this Southern place will learn. This will bring hope to the lives of this minority of a community.

This film brings drama to every single scene; there is always something to be said. At the same time this film is colorful, from the set to the wardrobe and make up.  But I really can’t stop thinking about this cast. Director Tate Taylor exploits so well the different women. From Celia, who is so good but a sad wife making us feel so sorry for her (I wanted to hug that woman so badly), to Skeeter’s mother, to The Help, and their bravery to Hilly, a bitter woman because she didn’t had love and all the other shallow girls. We connect with them, because they’re all unique, because every detail matters and these actors made everything possible. Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer have this genius dramatic and comic timing. Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard are brilliant. Bryce has the best role of her career. And all the secondary characters are good, again, because even they are well developed. I believe Emma Stone is chattered by her older mates! 

Director and writer Tate Taylor uses every detail and every trick to pull out the tear. The final scene of this film it’s also a goodbye scene and it’s also a scene that involves a baby crying and he takes the baby to the window and makes him scream and cry making the audience be uncontrollably touched not to say weeping like a baby.