Variety
The film emphasizes hankie-tugging sisterhood over pricklier issues that continue to divide the races today.
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The Help
Based on the New York Times bestselling novel, starring Emma Stone (Zombieland, Superbad) as a young woman who creates a stir in 1960s Mississippi by writing a book that interviews the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent, white southern families.
Skeeter (Stone) is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer. Uncomfortable with attitudes toward "the help" - especially with Hilly Holbrooks (Bryce Dallas Howard, Spider-Man 3) and her 'Sanitation Initiative' which proposes a bill to provide separate bathrooms for black maids - Skeeter decides to write a book about the black women who have spent their lives raising white children. Afraid of losing their jobs (or worse), the maids are reluctant to talk. But the floodgates open when Aibileen (Viola Davis, Doubt) opens up, and when the powerful Civil Rights movement spreads to Mississippi.
Less2011Rating: M, Mature themes146 minsUSA
Drama
- Director:
- Tate Taylor ('Pretty Ugly People')
- Writer:
- Tate Taylor
- Cast:
- Emma StoneBryce Dallas HowardSissy SpacekAllison JanneyMike VogelDavid OyelowoAhna O'ReillyViola DavisOctavia Spencer
The Help | Awards
Winner of Best Supporting Actress (Spencer) at the 2012 Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Golden Globes 2012.
The Help | Reviews
76%230 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Time Out
The tone lashes excruciatingly between lip-quivering solemnity and crowd-pleasing sass.
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Time Magazine
Taylor's adaptation is a finely crafted distillation of the book; even at two and a half hours it never lags.
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The New York Times
If the movie’s director, Tate Taylor, had his way, your tear ducts would be sucked dry by that big finish...
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Sunday Star-Times
There is humour, drop dead gorgeous costuming, and plenty of great acting to recommend The Help.
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Rolling Stone
Short on style and flashy technique, The Help on film compensates with genuine emotional force.
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Los Angeles Times
The movie exists within an emotionally charged landscape sometimes too starkly black and white — there is no room for ambiguity at this table.
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Hollywood Reporter
This self-conscious and self-congratulatory portrait of the Jim Crow South does at least contain two magnificent, award-worthy performances.
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A.V. Club
Shot like an inductee in the Hallmark Hall Of Fame, The Help covers an ugly era in superficial gloss...
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