
Variety
The film emphasizes hankie-tugging sisterhood over pricklier issues that continue to divide the races today.
Full reviewBased 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.
LessThe film emphasizes hankie-tugging sisterhood over pricklier issues that continue to divide the races today.
Full reviewThe tone lashes excruciatingly between lip-quivering solemnity and crowd-pleasing sass.
Full reviewTaylor's adaptation is a finely crafted distillation of the book; even at two and a half hours it never lags.
Full reviewIf the movie’s director, Tate Taylor, had his way, your tear ducts would be sucked dry by that big finish...
Full reviewThere is humour, drop dead gorgeous costuming, and plenty of great acting to recommend The Help.
Full reviewShort on style and flashy technique, The Help on film compensates with genuine emotional force.
Full reviewThe movie exists within an emotionally charged landscape sometimes too starkly black and white — there is no room for ambiguity at this table.
Full reviewThis self-conscious and self-congratulatory portrait of the Jim Crow South does at least contain two magnificent, award-worthy performances.
Full reviewShot like an inductee in the Hallmark Hall Of Fame, The Help covers an ugly era in superficial gloss...
Full reviewThe Help is available to stream in Australia now on Google Play and Apple TV and Disney+ and Prime Video Store.
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