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"The Help" is a safe film about a volatile subject. Presenting itself as the story of how African-American maids in the South viewed their employers during Jim Crow days, it is equally the story of how they empowered a young white woman to write a best-seller about them, and how that book transformed the author's mother. We are happy for the two white women, and a third, but as the film ends it is still Jackson, Mississippi and Ross Barnett is still governor.

Still, this is a good film, involving and wonderfully acted. I was drawn into the characters and quite moved, even though all the while I was aware it was a feel-good fable, a story that deals with pain but doesn't care to be that painful. We don't always go to the movies for searing truth, but more often for reassurance: Yes, racism is vile and cruel, but hey, not all white people are bad.

The story, based on Kathryn Stockett's best-seller, focuses on Skeeter Phelan ( Emma Stone ), a recent college graduate who comes home and finds she doesn't fit in so easily. Stone has top billing, but her character seems a familiar type, and the movie is stolen, one scene at a time, by two other characters: Aibileen Clark ( Viola Davis ) and Minny Jackson ( Octavia Spencer ).

Both are maids. Aibileen has spent her life as a nanny, raising little white girls. She is very good at it, and genuinely gives them her love, although when they grow up they have an inexorable tendency to turn into their mothers. Minny is a maid who is fired by a local social leader, then hired by a white-trash blonde. Davis and Spencer have such luminous qualities that this becomes their stories, perhaps not entirely by design.

The society lady, Hilly Holbrook ( Bryce Dallas Howard ), is a relentless social climber who fires Minny after long years of service. The blonde is Celia Foote ( Jessica Chastain , from " The Tree of Life "), who is married to a well-off businessman, is desperate to please him, and knows never learned anything about being a housewife.

Minny needs a job, and is happy to work for her. Celia wants her only during the days, when her husband is away, so that he'll think he's eating her cooking and enjoying her housekeeping. Minny helps her with these tasks and many more, some heart-breaking, and fills her with realistic advice. Chastain is unaffected and infectious in her performance.

Celia doesn't listen to Minny's counsel, however, when she attends a big local charity event (for, yes, Hungry African Children), and the event provides the movie's comic centerpiece. Celia's comeuppance doesn't have much to do with the main story, but it gets a lot of big laughs. Some details about a pie seem to belong in a different kind of movie.

Skeeter convinces Aibileen and then Minny to speak frankly with her, sharing their stories, and as the book develops so does her insight and anger. A somber subplot involves the mystery of why Skeeter's beloved nanny, who worked for the family for 29 years, disappeared while Skeeter was away at school. Her mother ( Alison Janney ) harbors the secret of the nanny's disappearance, and after revealing it she undergoes a change of heart in a big late scene of redemption.

Two observations, for what they're worth. All the white people in the movie smoke. None of the black people do. There are several white men with important speaking roles, but only two black men, including a preacher, who have much to say.

There was a 1991 movie named " The Long Walk Home " that starred Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek as a maid and her employer at the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It had sharper edges than "The Help." But I suppose the Stockett novel has many loyal readers, and that this is the movie they imagined while reading it. It's very entertaining. Viola Davis is a force of nature and Octavia Spencer has a wonderfully expressive face and flawless comic timing. Praise, too for Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard and Alison Janney. They would have benefitted from a more fearless screenplay.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Help (2011)

Rated PG-13

146 minutes

Ahna O'Reilly as Elizabeth Leefolt

Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote

Mike Vogel as Johnny Foote

Chris Lowell as Stuart Whitworth

Anna Camp as Jolene French

Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters

Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark

Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson

Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly Holbrook

Cicely Tyson as Constantine Jefferson

Emma Stone as Skeeter Phelan

Mary Steenburgen as Elaine Stein

Allison Janney as Charlotte Phelan

Written and directed by

• Tate Taylor

Based on the novel by

• Kathryn Stockett

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A stirring black-empowerment tale that personalizes the civil rights movement through the testimony of domestic servants working in Jackson, Miss., circa 1963.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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A stirring black-empowerment tale aimed squarely at white auds, “ The Help ” personalizes the civil rights movement through the testimony of domestic servants working in Jackson, Miss., circa 1963. But more than that, it serves as an enlightening and deeply affecting exercise in empathy for those who’ve never considered what life must have been like for African-Americans living with inequality a full century after the Emancipation Proclamation called an end to slavery. With its Southern sass and feel-good sensitivity — and broad awareness as a New York Times bestseller — “The Help” should clean up domestically, though it may not translate well overseas.

Based on Kathryn Stockett ‘s unlikely chart-topper, in which a white girl who fancies herself a writer convinces more than a dozen Mississippi maids to publish their stories, the adaptation is a multiethnic ensembler with likely greater appeal among genteel white ladies than the black community it somewhat patronizingly seeks to understand.

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The eminently likable Emma Stone plays the young journalist, a misfit debutante-turned-college grad named Skeeter Phelan, though the true hero is Viola Davis ‘ Aibileen, the African-American maid who puts her life and career on the line; in the Jim Crow South, talking out of turn could get Aibileen lynched.

The pair make compelling leads in a film packed with strong female characters. Getting to know this colorful and diverse group of ladies is chief among “The Help’s” many pleasures, as the film emphasizes hankie-tugging sisterhood over pricklier issues that continue to divide the races today. Standouts include Hilly Holbrook ( Bryce Dallas Howard ) and Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), two white ladies from opposite ends of the social spectrum. Even though the actresses playing them look uncannily similar, they create radically different portraits of Southern eccentricity.

As president of the local Junior League, Hilly is the classy Marilyn to Celia’s trailer-trash Norma Jean; both women also happen to share a maid, the cantankerous and equally unforgettable Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), who isn’t afraid to burn bridges in order to preserve her self-respect.

Everyone who’s anyone in Jackson — from Skeeter’s imperious mother (Allison Janney, perfectly cast) to Aibileen’s boss, Elizabeth Leefolt (Ahna O’Reilly, a master of the insincere Southern smile-scowl) — allows Hilly to bully them around. Top of her agenda is passing a bill that would require employers to build separate outdoor bathrooms for the help. Thanks to Minny, she’ll get her just desserts, courtesy of a twist that rivals that of kindred spirit “ Fried Green Tomatoes .”

In the novel, Skeeter’s anonymously published expose is simply called “Help” — a clever play on words that suggests a cry for change from segregated second-class citizens desperate for their voices to be heard. The film, adapted with the sure hand of a seasoned pro by Stockett’s longtime friend Tate Taylor (a relatively unproven director with only one previous feature to his name, 2008’s “Pretty Ugly People”), hews relatively close to its source material, running a tad on the long side in order to squeeze in most of the personality-rich book’s characters and subplots.

Still, many of these elements are paid little more than passing recognition and might have been better omitted altogether, if only to leave more room for the maids.

Though the film makes Hilly’s Home Help Sanitation Initiative (like her use of the N-word) unreasonable enough that no one would hesitate to denounce it today, the issue cuts to the heart of Stockett’s strong central theme: In their own minds, many Southern whites viewed their servants as members of the family, and yet they seldom extended them the same courtesies they would have shown to even the most unwanted relative. To underscore the point, Stockett includes Hilly’s mother, Missus Walters (Sissy Spacek), whose Alzheimer’s hasn’t advanced enough to erase the memory of her daughter’s most embarrassing secret.

In 1960s Mississippi, the only thing the white society ladies value more than discretion is gossip, and Skeeter’s book threatens to expose all their dirty laundry. Even more entertaining than the dirt is the dramatic story behind the book’s creation, intercut with such actual events as the assassination of Medgar Evers, which positions the publication of the fictitious tome as one of those inspiring small steps/giant leaps in which white readers come to recognize their fellow man.

The film itself shares that perspective, frequently privileging the maids’ point of view, to the extent that Taylor opens and closes the film with Aibileen’s testimony to Skeeter’s question: “What’s it feel like raising a white child when your own child is at home being raised by someone else?”

Like Stockett, Taylor grew up in Jackson and demonstrates a keen, wryly observant sense for the dialect and mannerisms of his hometown. Despite his limited directing experience, the helmer has firm control of the material, working with production designer Mark Ricker (“Julie & Julia”) and costume designer Sharen Davis (“Dreamgirls”) to create a robust, fully saturated snapshot of the city, from Hilly’s impeccable beehive hairdo to Aibileen’s understated-yet-proud living room.

“The Help” probably didn’t need the anemic romantic thread between Skeeter and Stuart Whitworth (Chris Lowell), though its inclusion — over the book’s explanation for what really happened to Constantine (Cicely Tyson), the Phelan family maid who lost her job after her daughter was born pale enough to pass for white — suggests where the film’s priorities lie. It’s a shame, too, that the pic leaves out the particulars of what happens to Aibileen, though the final scene — in concert with Thomas Newman ‘s score throughout — is irrefutably optimistic about where things are headed.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a DreamWorks Pictures/Reliance Entertainment presentation in association with Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi of a 1492 Pictures/Harbinger Pictures production. Produced by Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan. Executive producers, Mark Radcliffe, Tate Taylor, L. Dean Jones Jr., Nate Berkus, Jennifer Blum, John Norris, Jeff Skoll, Mohamed Mubarak Al Mazrouei. Co-producer, Sonya Lunsford. Directed, written by Tate Taylor, based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett.
• Crew: Camera (Deluxe color), Stephen Goldblatt; editor, Hughes Winborne; music, Thomas Newman; production designer, Mark Ricker; art director, Curt Beech; set decorator, Rena Deangelo; costume designer, Sharen Davis; sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat/SDDS), Willie Burton; supervising sound editor, Dennis Drummond; visual effects supervisor, Ray McIntyre, Jr.; visual effects, Pixel Magic; re-recording mixers, Scott Millan, David Giammarco; casting, Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee. Reviewed at Clarity screening room, Beverly Hills, July 20, 2011. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 146 MIN.
• With: Skeeter Phelan - Emma Stone Aibileen Clark - Viola Davis Hilly Holbrook - Bryce Dallas Howard Minny Jackson - Octavia Spencer Celia Foote - Jessica Chastain Elizabeth Leefolt - Ahna O'Reilly Charlotte Phelan - Allison Janney Jolene French - Anna Camp Mae Mobley - Eleanor Henry, Emma Henry Stuart Whitworth - Chris Lowell Constantine Jefferson - Cicely Tyson Johnny Foote - Mike Vogel Missus Walters - Sissy Spacek Elaine Stein - Mary Steenburgen

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Poignant, thought-provoking civil rights tale.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties of be

Skeeter starts her book project because she wants

Minny is domestically abused; it happens off-camer

For the first half of the movie, there's virtually

The word "s--t" is of prominent importance to the

Coca-Cola is shown a couple of times, as is a Pigg

Accurately for the '60s setting, almost everyone i

Parents need to know that The Help is an emotionally intense adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling civil rights-era novel. It isn't likely to appeal to young kids, but it's a historically relevant drama that mature tweens and teens can see with their parents. The film not only teaches about…

Positive Messages

The movie doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties of being African American in Jim Crow Mississippi, but there are positive messages about how the '60s were a revolutionary time for civil rights, even as so many had to die to achieve it. Through Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny's partnership, the idea that a member of the "elite" class can find common ground with disenfranchised African-American servants is critical to the movie, even if it was improbable in real life.

Positive Role Models

Skeeter starts her book project because she wants to be published, but as she gets to know Aibileen and Minny, she realizes that her book is an important exercise in getting disenfranchised voices heard. Aibileen and Minny bravely, carefully buck the Southern system of Jim Crow to share their stories with Skeeter. Aibileen teaches the little girl in her care to be self-confident and loving. Skeeter suffers the consequences of her actions but realizes it was for the best. Skeeter's mom has a change of heart about the way she treated their family housekeeper. Celia sees Minny as an equal and actually befriends her, and Minny helps save Celia from misery.

Violence & Scariness

Minny is domestically abused; it happens off-camera, but viewers do see her with bruises on her face. The assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers is a key moment in the film; President Kennedy's assassination is also discussed. In a disturbing scene, a character suffers a miscarriage and is shown sitting in a small pool of blood. A police officer is rough with an African-American woman he arrests (and her friends), even hitting her in the head with his night stick. Parents sensitive to physical discipline should know that a parent spanks her child for a minor "mistake." A mother recounts how her son was basically left for dead by his white employers; another woman explains how she was threatened at gun point. The maids seem genuinely fearful of white men, whom they know could kill them without any repercussions.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

For the first half of the movie, there's virtually no sexuality (except for the occasional presence of Celia, who wears form-fitting outfits and has considerable cleavage). In the second half, Skeeter goes on a date that turns into her first serious relationship, although she and her boyfriend only kiss and hold hands. A woman's history of multiple miscarriages is discussed; she and her husband are depicted as playful and flirty. Other married couples embrace and dance at a holiday gala.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

The word "s--t" is of prominent importance to the storyline and is said several times throughout the movie. Other language includes "damn," "hell," "jackass," "a--hole," "goddamn," "oh my God," and the "N" word, which is used once, in a casual, matter-of-fact way: "Some n---er just got shot, now y'all got to get off the bus." Hilly often pronounces the words "negro" and "negra" in a way that sounds like "niggra." Other insults used toward the help include "thievin'," "sass-mouthin'," and "no-good."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Coca-Cola is shown a couple of times, as is a Piggly Wiggly supermarket.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Accurately for the '60s setting, almost everyone in the movie (even a pregnant character) smokes. One character orders drink after drink on a blind date. A woman gets drunk at a party and accidentally rips her social rival's sleeve; she then throws up on her adversary's party gown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Help is an emotionally intense adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling civil rights-era novel. It isn't likely to appeal to young kids, but it's a historically relevant drama that mature tweens and teens can see with their parents. The film not only teaches about segregation and the importance of racial equality, but it also shows how oppressed people have important stories to tell. The language is tame for a PG-13 movie except for the word "s--t," which is used several times, and one casual use of the "N" word by a bus driver. African Americans are referred to as "negro," and a grown-up restaurant worker is called "boy" by white patrons. There's no graphic violence, but a character is obviously physically abused by her husband, and a woman has a miscarriage, leaving her in a pool of her blood. Reflecting the '60s setting, almost everyone (even a pregnant woman) smokes cigarettes and drinks. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Kids say (117)

Based on 50 parent reviews

Great historical movie

If religious profanity bothers you, don't watch -, what's the story.

Skeeter ( Emma Stone ) is one of the few young women in her upper-crust circle to actually graduate from college. She returns home to Jackson, Miss., where all of her friends are married young mothers who let their African-American maids do the heavy lifting while they gather for bridge games, gossip, and charity-ball planning. Unfulfilled with her job as a household-tips columnist, Skeeter pitches a book idea to a New York city editor ( Mary Steenburgen ): She'll write a collection of stories about THE HELP, from their point of view. But first Skeeter must convince her friends' housekeepers -- starting with Aibileen ( Viola Davis ) -- to be interviewed for the project. Hesitant at first, Aibileen eventually relents and nudges her best friend, the recently fired Minny (Octavia Spencer), to tell the truth about raising and loving white children who grow up to be just as racist as their parents.

Is It Any Good?

All of the performances are remarkable in this drama. On the surface, The Help looks like yet another civil rights story told from the perspective of an open-minded white character who acts as the catalyst for change. But director Tate Taylor is careful not to put an overwhelming spotlight on Skeeter at the expense of Aibileen (who narrates the drama) or Minny. Stone continues to solidify her stellar reputation with her understated performance as the ambitious but slightly misfit young writer. But the real revelations are Davis, who's such a nuanced actress that she can elicit a storm of emotions with her soul-piercing stare, and relative newcomer Spencer, who's not only playing the opinionated Minny but is her inspiration (she's a close friend of both the author and director). Both actresses are deserving of an Academy Award nominations.

There's not a flat note in the production, although special mention must be made of scene-stealers Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain . Howard plays Hilly Holbrook, one of the meanest, most heartless villains this side of Cruella DeVil. She's the Junior League set's queen bee and is so racist that she wants a bill passed forcing white homes to have a separate bathroom for their black servants. Chastain, who wowed critics in The Tree of Life , lets loose as Minny's kind and charismatic employer, who's desperate for a friend. The Help is one of those perfect movies for parents and mature tweens/teens to see together. It sparks discussion, teaches a history lesson, and makes everyone think about how we treat others. And yes, don't forget the tissues. There will be weeping.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how The Help depicts African Americans' struggle for racial equality. How accurate do you think it is? How could you find out more about this part of history?

Are the characters realistic? Do you consider any of them to be stereotypes ? If so, why?

Some have criticized Stockett's story for making a white character central to the civil rights movement. How is the movie sensitive to this issue? What did you learn about the South under Jim Crow laws?

For those who've read the book, how faithful is the movie adaptation? What changes did you like? What do you wish the director had included?

Movie Details

• In theaters : August 12, 2011
• On DVD or streaming : December 6, 2011
• Cast : Bryce Dallas Howard , Emma Stone , Octavia Spencer , Viola Davis
• Director : Tate Taylor
• Inclusion Information : Gay directors, Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : DreamWorks
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 137 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : thematic material
• Last updated : March 23, 2024

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A feel-good movie that feels kind of icky.

“This isn’t about me,” aspiring journalist Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone) assures housemaid Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) as they sit tensely together in Aibileen’s kitchen in early 1960s Jackson, Miss. By “this,” Skeeter means the book she’s hoping to compile from the testimonials of black housemaids—a book titled, like this movie and the Oprah-endorsed best-seller it’s based on, The Help (Dreamworks/Disney).

Skeeter—a brainy, ambitious white woman freshly graduated from Ole Miss—eventually convinces the skeptical Aibileen of her good faith, and together they produce an oral history scandalous enough to turn Jackson’s Junior League on its ear. But it’s never clear whether we, the audience, should believe Skeeter’s disclaimer or not, since the movie sort of is about her. The Help, written and directed by Tate Taylor from the novel by Kathryn Stockett, belongs to the Driving Miss Daisy tradition of feel-good fables about black-white relations in America, movies in which institutional racism takes a backseat to the personal enlightenment of one white character.

It’s hard to actively hate The Help , a movie so solicitous of the audience’s favor that it can’t help but win it some of the time. Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are tremendous as the stolid Aibileen and her hot-tempered best friend and fellow housekeeper, Minny; these two women are funny, smart, and righteous, and every moment we spend in their company is a delight. Some of the smaller performances are quite fine, too, especially Jessica Chastain as a ditzy new arrival in town. There are several solid laughs, and at least two instances when I had to scramble for a tissue. But after awhile all this emotional dexterity starts to resemble emotional manipulation. The Help is a high-functioning tearjerker, but the catharsis it offers feels glib and insufficient, a Barbie Band-Aid on the still-raw wound of race relations in America.

Skeeter’s idea for the book begins to take shape when Minny’s employer, the bitchy queen bee Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) starts a campaign to pass a bill requiring separate “colored” bathrooms for houses with domestic help. When Minny defiantly uses her boss’s bathroom, Hilly summarily fires her, and Minny, after taking sly revenge, goes to work for Celia Foote (Chastain), a nouveau-riche newlywed whom Hilly has chosen as her sworn enemy.

While the white women of Jackson spar over social status, bridge clubs, and charity fundraisers, the town’s black maids, who are bused in each morning from the poorer side of town, struggle to make a living and send their children to school. A few characters, like Skeeter’s ailing mother (Allison Janney), are given a trajectory from racial obliviousness to semi-enlightenment, but for the most part, whites in this movie are either pure-of-heart crusaders or sneering bigots.

Similarly, some of the black characters (most notably Skeeter’s aged former nanny Constantine, played by a frail-looking Cicely Tyson) border on saintly stereotypes from a sentimental abolitionist-era novel. This moral Manichaeism makes for satisfying melodrama—in fact, one of the two scenes that made me cry involved the angelic Constantine. But it also lets the viewer off the hook by making racism seem like a quaint artifact of the days when there were openly racist Hillys bullying self-evidently blameless Constantines.

If The Help contained more moments in which Skeeter’s good will wasn’t enough—in which, despite her best intentions, she blundered by unintentionally patronizing one of her interview subjects and had to confront her own received ideas about race—contemporary viewers might recognize a moment we’ve actually lived through, rather than being encouraged to congratulate ourselves on how far we’ve come.

Then again, if glossily inspiring movies about African-American lives didn’t get made, would a different, more challenging kind get made in their place? Part of me wants to say that it’s fine for The Help , book and movie, to exist as a pop-cultural phenomenon. The story simplifies and reduces the civil rights movement, yes, but at least it’s about it. That’s not nothing given the insulated bubble in which most movies marketed at women take place (the blithely apolitical Eat Pray Love comes to mind). The Help raises the eternal question faced by minority groups who have to fight for space onscreen (that is to say, anyone but white men): Do we count ourselves glad to make any inroads we can, or do we demand rich, nuanced, subtle representations right from the start? I get the feeling that The Help ’s reception will be sharply divided by that question—a division which may in itself be this movie’s most valuable contribution.

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

A deeply touching human story filled with humor and heartbreak is rare in any movie season, especially summer. That’s what makes The Help an exhilarating gift. It could have been a disaster. Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel riled a few critics. The gall of Stockett, a white woman from Jackson, Mississippi, to think she could get inside the heads of black maids serving white folks during the early 1960s. The dialect (“Yes, ma’am,” “sho-nuff,” “Law have mercy”) probably helped Stockett get more than 60 rejections from literary agents. But her book, published by Penguin in 2009, touched a raw nerve that led to bestseller­dom and a frank admission from Stockett about how she could never truly understand what it felt like to be a black woman in Mississippi at the dawn of the civil rights movement. “But trying to understand,” Stockett wrote, “is vital to our humanity.”

Solid point. And the film version of The Help , directed and written – at Stockett’s request – by the relatively inexperienced Tate Taylor (her friend from Jackson), does full justice to that intention. Short on style and flashy technique, The Help on film compensates with genuine emotional force.

The actors are sublime. Start with the brilliant Viola Davis ( Doubt ) as Aibileen Clark, the housekeeper who’s helped raise 17 white children for various families but is still reeling from the accidental death of her only son. Aibileen bites her tongue when her employer (Ahna O’Reilly) ignores her own baby girl and Aibileen’s feelings when she’s relegated to the new bathroom outside. Aibileen’s best friend, Minny Jackson (an award-caliber performance from Octavia Spencer), isn’t one to hold back. The secret ingredient she pops in a pie for her racist boss (Bryce Dallas Howard, all-stops-out) earns its name as the “Terrible Awful.” The fired Minny is forced to take a job with white-trash social outcast Celia Foote, who could have been a bombshell cliché if the incandescent Jessica Chastain ( The Tree of Life ) didn’t play her with such warmth and feeling.

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The film’s catalyst is Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone), a recent graduate of Ole Miss looking to spark a career in journalism by getting Aibileen and Minny to confide their feelings about working for white families in a changing South. Skeeter is a tricky part – white girl liberates enslaved black womanhood – but Stone, an exceptional talent, is so subtly effective at showing Skeeter’s naiveté. It’s Skeeter’s job to first liberate herself from the bigoted codes passed on through generations, including her mother (Allison Janney) and Skeeter’s own card-­dealing, role-­playing girlfriends. The Help tries to understand all of them. It’s an intimate epic, not a historical one. And the tale written on the eloquent faces of Davis and Spencer speaks to the heart.

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THE HELP Review

The Help review. Matt reviews Tate Taylor's The Help starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Movies that take place during the Civil Rights era have become their own genre and one that sometimes diminishes the characters and their stories by making everyone into a hero, a villain, or a martyr.  The Help tries to expand those roles by showing that not all southern white people in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi are vile racists, not all black people are born courageous activists, and that while the battle lines were clearly defined as right and wrong, some people had to do some soul-searching to find where they stood.  The movie stumbles when it forgets to shade its characters and by being too faithful to the book at the expense of effectively translating the story to the screen.  But despite these missteps, The Help manages to deliver some powerful emotional moments due in large part to yet another tremendous performance from Viola Davis.

As Aibileen Clark (Davis) explains in the opening scene, black maids raise the children of affluent white people and then they end up working for those children.  For Aibileen, raising children isn't a curse but a blessing and she loves to do it.  It's the mothers, in particular her employers (and some would argue, her owners in a society that has clung to any remnant of slavery they can find) that are the problem.  They're selfish and entitled and see both their children and their help as accessories rather than people.  When Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan (Emma Stone) comes back to Jackson after graduating from Ole Miss she wants to be a writer.  She gets a job at a local newspaper writing for the "Miss Myrna" column which offers cleaning advice.  She happily accepts it as a start and asks her friend Elizabeth (Ahna O'Reilly), who is Aibileen's employer, if Aibileen (Davis) will help with the column.  But as Skeeter wrestles with the mysterious departure of Constantine (Cicely Tyson), the maid who raised her, she decides to write a book from the perspective of Aibileen and her fellow maids.

The Help does a solid job of showing why maids like Aibileen and her friend Minny (Octavia Spencer) are reluctant to share their stories.  They could lose their jobs, get blackballed by their former employers, and put their very lives at risk by the swell of racist hatred in Jackson.  But eventually, Aibileen and Minny are pushed too far, particularly by the actions of evil rich white person Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), and feel compelled to tell Skeeter their stories.

The storylines of Aibileen, Skeeter, and Minny is where The Help lives and where its most powerful moments come from.  The movie wisely makes sure to not turn Skeeter into the hero whose magnanimous actions make her the savior of Jackson's black community.  She's simply a vehicle for the maids to tell their stories.  She does have her own arc and her story is richest when she fondly remembers her time with Constantine and now has to deal with the cowardice of her mother (Allison Janney) and her lifelong friends.  But the movie drags her story down with an unnecessary love story and ridiculously trying to convince the audience that men have never been attracted to someone who looks like Emma Stone.

Minny's storyline fares better.  She serves mostly as the comic relief but Spencer does get to handle some drama when she builds a relationship with Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), a ditzy newcomer to Jackson who doesn't understand why she's become a pariah to Hilly and her cadre of shallow women.  Taylor (who also wrote the screenplay) tries to add some more drama by bringing in Minny's abusive husband Leroy as a background character but we never see him.  It's as if seeing a black person behave in an undignified light would be detrimental to the film.  I don't believe it's racist to show that anyone of any race can be a bad person.  Since The Help tries to show that balance among the character of white people, it feels disrespectful to use kid gloves when showing the diversity of character among the black characters.

Instead, The Help shades the African-American characters with respectable fear.  The movie never makes us think that the maids who won't tell Skeeter their stories are cowardly, but it hammers home the courage of the maids that choose to speak up.  Aibileen embodies this conflict between self-preservation and reexamining what exactly is being preserved.  Davis gives an Oscar-worthy performance as she balances the strength, intelligence, fear, regret, and love wound up in her character.  There will inevitably be talk about whether Davis should be submitted in the Best Supporting Actress or Best Actress category, but to me there's no question: this is a leading performance and it's the reason to see this movie.

Taylor had no problem in developing the characters of Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter, which is why it's bizarre to see someone so one-note and predictable as Hilly.  She's a racist, shallow, and hateful human being.  The end.  At one point, Hilly's mother (Sissy Spacek) says to her daughter, "Your father spoiled you," whatever the hell that means.  So her dad was a vile, hateful racist?  Then why is Hilly's mother kind to Milly?  You never have any idea where Hilly's behavior comes from, Howard never hints at a deeper character, and the conclusion that some people are just rotten is ill-befitting a movie that wants to probe deeper.

There are times when The Help is a little too broad or a little too saccharine and it's certainly a little too long.  You could shave off about half an hour from the movie and it would be far more effective in telling its story.  But if you can get past the sluggish pace and the uninteresting character of Hilly, you're going to find a thoughtful movie that goes beyond the clichés of the Civil Rights Era drama and instead finds a touching story that's bolstered by strong performances from Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, and an outstanding one from Viola Davis.

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The Help Parent Guide

The beautiful sets, creative directing and strong character development all put "the help" solidly in the running for a coveted statuette..

In the summer of 1962 Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone) returns to Jackson, Mississippi after finishing her university degree. Here the aspiring writer bumps into a story idea: She takes a look at life in the white community from the perspective of the families' African-American maids (two of whom are played by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer).

Release date August 10, 2011

Run Time: 146 minutes

Official Movie Site

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

The Academy Awards are still months away, but there is a feeling of Oscars in the air thanks to the strong female cast in the superbly acted movie The Help. Set in racially charged Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s, the story, based on the book of the same name , peels back the layers of prejudice and social injustice as carefully as Minnie Jackson (Octavia Spencer) prepares an onion.

Minnie, touted for her exceptional cooking skills, is the maid of Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), Jackson’s own ironfisted leader of the Mean Girls . She insists the hired help doesn’t forget their place in Southern society and she won’t shy away from ruining reputations and lives if that’s what it takes to maintain the status quo.

It’s while getting advice for her column from Elizabeth’s maid Aibileen (Viola Davis) that Skeeter suddenly pounces upon an idea for her first book—an exposé of Southern life from the perspective of the maids. Yet convincing the women to talk, even anonymously, proves difficult. With the Jim Crow laws still in effect, Aibileen and the others know their very lives are in danger for speaking out against their employers.

What’s remarkable about this script is its refusal to take a merely black and white view of the time. The portrayed society reeks with hierarchies based on race, social standing, age and the ability to make others cower. Breaking down the ingrained pecking order requires courage on the part of many.

While Davis, Stone, Howard and Spencer all offer extraordinary performances the secondary characters are equally absorbing. Allison Janney plays Skeeter’s guilt and cancer-ridden mother. Cicely Tyson appears as the gentle black woman who raised the young journalist. Jessica Chastain stars as a spurned outcast who yearns to fit in with the other white women. And Sissy Spacek puts in an incredible showing as the slightly addled, disposed matriarch of Hilly’s family. Together these women, under the direction of Tate Taylor, produce a riveting piece that unfolds with humor, tears and a generous helping of sass—thanks mostly to the outspoken Minnie who finds it impossible to follow her own advice about keeping one’s mouth shut on the job.

With so many female actors, some might incorrectly label this as a chick flick. But the drama is so much more. While frequent profanities may discourage parents from taking their children to this film, the beautiful sets, creative directing and strong character development all put The Help solidly in the running for a coveted statuette.

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The help rating & content info.

Why is The Help rated PG-13? The Help is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for thematic material.

Violence: Depictions of racial injustices are shown. A woman is beaten with a police baton (off screen). The sounds of an abusive argument are heard. A woman chops off the head of a chicken (off screen). A woman spanks a child. A tainted food product is fed to a character. Characters and TV broadcasts discuss the killing of a Black man and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The bloody aftermath of a miscarriage is portrayed.

Sexual Content: A mother questions her daughter’s sexual orientation. Characters talk about an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and miscarriages. Couples kiss briefly.

Language: The script contains frequent profanities, scatological slang, terms of Deity and the use of racial slurs within a historical context.

Alcohol / Drug Use : In this period film, characters smoke frequently. Drinks are served in social settings. At least two characters are portrayed as drunk, including one woman who drives under the influence.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

The Help Parents' Guide

Who reigns in this social arena? Who is marginalized? What societal pressures do the characters experience? Why are these conventions so strong? Who, besides the maids, are lower in the pecking order?

How do rumors and lies hurt the reputation of others in this story? Why is it so difficult for people to prove their innocence?

How are wigs used to depict the two-faced nature of this society? Are there other objects that take on symbolic meanings in this story?

What is ironic about the women’s fundraiser for starving children in Africa? Is it sometimes easier to see problems in other parts of the world rather than in our own community?

The most recent home video release of The Help movie is December 6, 2011. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: The Help

Release Date: 6 December 2011

The Help releases to home video on December 6, 2011, in a 2 Disc (DVD and Blu-ray) or 3 Disc (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) set. Both packages offer:

- Deleted scenes (introduced by director Tate Taylor): A Senator’s Son, Keep On Walkin’, Humiliated, A Book About Jackson and Johnny’s Home.

- Music Video: The Living Proof (by Mary J. Blige)

- The Making of The Help

- In Their Own Words: A Tribute To The Maids Of Mississippi

Related home video titles:

Another white girl befriends some African-American women in The Secret Life of Bees . A lawyer risks stirring up the anger of his community when he agrees to defend a black man in To Kill a Mockingbird . The color barrier affects the working relationship of a doctor and his research assistant in Something the Lord Made .

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Help review – dizzying psychodrama that gets domestic violence all wrong

If the drama wasn’t bad enough, a dog dies in this poorly conceived thriller that suffers from wooden acting and turgid pacing

T his dull, stilted, suspense drama is not to be confused with either the excellent TV series of the same name starring Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer , or the Beatles’ larky 1965 collaboration with director Richard Lester (same title, but with extra punctuation). Perhaps this Help’s writer-director, Blake Ridder, and his producers were hoping that folks surfing streaming platforms might click on their production thinking it was either of these two far superior entertainments. Accidental viewers are not likely to stick with this unless they really want to know what happens to three or so thinly drawn characters locked in a psychodrama of suspicion, betrayal and unconvincingly faked lust.

Having just split up with her long-distance lover, Grace (Emily Redpath) comes to visit her old friend Liv (Sarah Alexandra Marks) and partner Edward (Louis James) in the countryside. A neighbour, David (played by Ridder himself), who appears to either be autistic or have another neurodivergent condition, warns Grace enigmatically as she arrives that “it’s bad”. This, presumably, applies to Liv and Edward’s tempestuous relationship but could just as easily be a judgment on the film itself. Gradually, Grace realises that there is violence happening behind closed doors, but the big twist reveals that things are not as they seem. While we wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, we can’t let it pass that the reveal is predicated on a very dodgy understanding of a particular type of domestic violence.

This is Ridder’s first full-length feature after having made dozens of shorts (according to IMDB), on many of which he is credited as cinematographer, editor, producer and actor as well as writer-director. You would think after all that practice, this step-up to feature making would be a bit better. The biggest problem, apart from the turgid pace and confused screenwriting, is directing actors: the cast perform with the wooden, inert energy of hostages making a proof-of-life video. Worst of all, a cute jack russell terrier named Polly gets accidentally offed. Some cinematic crimes are unforgivable.

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OVERALL DIRECTOR INTRO

The making of the help: from friendship to film, in their own words: a tribute to the maids of mississippi, deleted scenes, keep on walkin', johnny's home, a senator's son, a book about jackson, music & more, "the living proof" music video, rotten tomatoes® score.

As a piece of entertainment, it works. As a historical document, its contents are too sanitized in an effort to avoid inflaming old tensions and that mutes its impact.

While the narrative includes Black characters’ perspectives, the writing holds them at a distance, not providing more in-depth character development overall.

This is a film that will expose you to horrible truths about a not-too-distant past and, in the end, makes you laugh and feel like there’s a happy ending, except there isn’t one. Not really.

The Help, a likely Best Picture nominee, has one of the best ensembles of the year.

"The Help" will make you laugh, cry, and contemplate how far we've come as a society, how much has radically changed since the 1960s and, given our current racial climate, reflect on how much more progress we need.

This movie is slick and mainstream; it's also funny and sweet, dramatic and pointed.

An uplifting, feel-good movie.

The Help works beautifully as an entertaining film about a troubling period in American history and the people who were impacted by it.

Abruptly ending and slightly overlong it may be, the performances from the three female leads and the authenticity of the setting covers the cracks in an otherwise charming film.

As perfect as a sipping a cold glass of sweet tea on a sweltering summer afternoon, TheHelp quenches your thirst for a perfect movie experience.

Additional Info

• Genre : Drama
• Release Date : August 10, 2011
• Languages : English, Spanish
• Captions : English, Spanish
• Audio Format : 5.1

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Warning: Major spoilers for Meg 2: The Trench below!

• Despite poor critical reviews, Meg 2: The Trench grossed $142 million in its opening weekend, proving the franchise's long-term viability.
• The film's success is largely attributed to its Chinese-American co-production and appeal to the Chinese market, with a major Chinese star in a lead role.
• Meg 2 offers a refreshing and simple concept compared to other summer releases, delivering cheap thrills and a switch-your-brain-off experience.

Meg 2: The Trench grossed a very healthy $142 million during its opening weekend despite bad critical reviews, and there are many reasons why. The original Meg was also something of a surprise box office success in 2018, as the film was based on a cult horror novel that at that point was already 20 years old. A film adaptation had been trapped in development hell for years, with directors like Eli Roth trying and failing to get it moving. Thanks to several factors like great marketing and an international cast, The Meg would take a $530 million-sized bite out of the worldwide box office.

Meg 2: The Trench is the real test of the franchise's long-term viability, and it arrived five years on from the original's release. The sequel surfaced to some poor reviews, with Meg 2 receiving only 28% on Rotten Tomatoes . Despite some predictions of doom over its financial prospects, Meg 2 recovered its entire production budget in its opening weekend alone and is on course to turn a nice profit. Its success shouldn't come as a major shock, as the Jason Statham-fronted follow-up had many plus points in its corner.

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Just like the first entry, Meg 2: The Trench is a Chinese-American co-production. Accordingly, the film is geared towards the Chinese market just as much as international audiences, which includes having a major Chinese star like Wu Jing ( Wolf Warrior ) in a lead role. The film made over $30 million in North America, but the remaining $112 million came from overseas, with a big chunk of that coming from China. It should be noted The Meg series gets around China's film quota that rejects many American blockbusters by virtue of the fact the series is 100% Chinese-owned and is considered a Chinese production made for a global audience.

9 Meg 2's Reviews Were Always Unlikely To Impact People Seeing It

Rotten Tomatoes scores should never be the sore metric of a film's critical reception. That said, Meg 2's measly 28% score is an indicator of how disliked the sequel is among major critics. On the flip side, it has a 73% audience score because The Trench is, in essence, critic-proof. Meg 2 is a film that's essentially sold on its poster; that is, Statham fighting a giant shark. Those who enjoyed The Meg wanted more of the same, and there's a beautiful simplicity to Meg 2's premise that makes it a prototypical popcorn flick.

8 Meg 2: The Trench Offers Something Different To Recent Summer Releases

Meg 2: The Trench takes audiences ever further into the titular Mariana Trench, an exotic underwater world filled with some nasty monsters. In addition to just being visually distinct from its rivals, Meg 2 just offers moviegoers something different. It doesn't have a bloated runtime, a large cast of characters, or a complicated, time-hopping narrative to keep track of. Instead, it's a true switch-your-brain-off kind of summer blockbuster that delivers on its core concept within a lean runtime. Meg 2: The Trench is far from flawless, but there's something to be said for a film that offers some good, old-fashioned cheap thrills.

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2 Meg 2 ALSO Had The Wu Jing Factor

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1 Meg 2 Played Into Audience Feedback

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“Hi, I’m David Leitch. And I’m the director of ‘The Fall Guy.’ So I’m super excited. This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. It’s like our setup. You see Ryan and Emily in a flashback where they are flirting.” “Oh, I was going to go for a spicy margarita after work. And I was wondering if you drink spicy margaritas?” [LAUGHS] “Well, just to keep it professional, I can only have one spicy margarita because if I have two, I start making bad decisions.” “This scene is all shot as a oner. It’s no cuts. So it was really a challenge for what’s going to come next. Ryan is having to play this charming, charismatic guy, knowing that we’re going to actually hook him to a 120-foot descender. A descender is a rig where we drop someone off a building or whatever. And the mechanism below actually decels him for the last 10 feet. That’s the actual stunt team right there. Keir Beck is hooking him in right now with the other Australian rigging team. And they’re getting ready to put Ryan over the edge.” “After this, you and I could both be on a beach somewhere in swimming costumes, drinking spicy margaritas.” “As a stunt person, this is not unusual. You would be having a conversation right up to the time you’re doing the stunt, finding the time to center yourself as they hang you over. It’s pretty amazing that he’s keeping his composure. We actually did this practically. This is all real. And this is in a building in Sydney. It took us about four months to get the permits to build the truss we needed to do, and get all the engineering and safety requirements out of the way. And this might be take two. But Ryan was such a good sport. I know he knew at some point, it’s called ‘The Fall Guy,’ he knew he was going to have to do something like this. So there he goes.” “Action! Action! Action! Action!” [WHIRRING]

By Manohla Dargis

Like a certain energized bunny, Ryan Gosling’s charmer in “The Fall Guy” just keeps going as he runs and leaps, tumbles and punches and vaults through the air like a rocket. The actor has shed his “Barbie” pretty-in-pink look, if not his signature heat-seeking moves to play Colt Seavers, a stuntman with a long résumé, six-packs on his six-packs and a disregard for personal safety. Plunging 12 stories in a building atrium, though, is just another bruising day on the job for Colt until, oops, he nearly goes splat.

Directed by David Leitch, “The Fall Guy” is divertingly slick, playful nonsense about a guy who lives to get brutalized again and again — soon after it starts, Colt suffers his catastrophic accident — which may be a metaphor for contemporary masculinity and its discontents, though perhaps not. More unambiguously, the movie is a feature-length stunt-highlight reel that’s been padded with romance, a minor mystery, winking jokes and the kind of unembarrassed self-regard for moviemaking that film people have indulged in for nearly as long as cinema has been in existence. For once, this swaggering pretense is largely justified.

There’s a story, though it’s largely irrelevant given that the movie is essentially a vehicle for Gosling and a lot of stunt performers to strut their cool stuff. Written by Drew Pearce and based (marginally) on the 1980s TV series of the same title starring Lee Majors, it opens shortly before Colt’s 12-story plunge goes wrong. After some restorative time alone baring his torso, he resumes stunt work, drawn by the promise of a reunion with his ex, Jody (a welcome if underused Emily Blunt). She’s directing a science-fiction blowout that looks like the typical big-screen recycling bin, with bits from generic video games, the 2011 fantasy “ Cowboys & Aliens ,” and both the “Alien” and “Mad Max” franchises. Cue the flirting and the fighting.

Leitch is a former stunt performer who has his own estimable résumé, which includes doubling for Brad Pitt, whom he later directed in “ Bullet Train .” Leitch has a company with Chad Stahelski, yet another former stunt performer turned movie director who’s is best known for the “John Wick” series with Keanu Reeves. Working in tandem with physically expressive performers like Pitt, Reeves and Charlize Theron (Leitch directed “ Atomic Blonde ”), the two filmmakers have, in the post-John Woo era, put a distinctive stamp on American action cinema with a mix of martial-arts styles, witty fight choreography and, especially, a focus on the many ways a human body can move (or hurtle) through space.

There are arsenals of guns and all manner of sharp objects that do gruesome damage in Leitch’s movies, “The Fall Guy” included. Yet what seizes your attention here, and in other Leitch and Stahelski productions, is the intense physicality of the action sequences, with their coordinated twisting, wrenching and straining bodies. A signature of both directors is that they emphasize the intense effort that goes into these physical acts, which is understandable given their backgrounds. (Like Fred Astaire, they show off the body, head to toe.) In their movies, you hear the panting and see the grimacing as fists and feet and whatever else happens to be around (a fridge door, a briefcase, a bottle) connect with soft tissue and hard heads.

Like the impressively flamboyant practical effects in “The Fall Guy,” this focus on the body reads like a rebuke to the digital wizardry that now characterizes action movies. Each time Colt crashes to the ground in “The Fall Guy,” the moment announces his and the movie’s authenticity (however you want to define that). There’s a macho undertow to this — real men, real stunts — which dovetails with how his romance with Jody is, by turns, comically, sentimentally and, at times, irritatingly framed, including via split-screen mirroring à la “ Pillow Talk .” Jody may be Colt’s boss, but he’s the one who has to save the day after some gnarly business with a star and producer (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Hannah Waddingham).

The issue of authenticity is a thread that the story jokingly pulls with a scene in which Colt’s face is digitally scanned and in a subplot involving a deep fake. (It’s funnier if you don’t think too hard about the fact that A.I. was an existentially fraught issue in the 2023 actors’ strike.) Tapping into his inner Tom Cruise, Gosling makes love to the camera and performs some of his own showstopping moves, at one point while atop and almost under a speeding garbage truck. Given that “The Fall Guy” is an ode to stunt work, it’s only right to note that the actor’s stunt doubles were Ben Jenkin and Justin Eaton, his driving double was Logan Holladay while his double on that nosebleed of a plummet was Troy Brown. Kudos, gentlemen.

The Fall Guy Rated PG-13 for falls, fights, crashes and explosions. Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

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