The Help is a 2011 American drama film adaptation of the novel of the same name (2009) by Kathryn Stockett, adapted for the screen and directed by Tate Taylor. Featuring an ensemble cast, the film is about a young white woman, Eugenia Skeeter Phelan, and her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson during Civil Rights era America (the early 1960s). Skeeter is a journalist who decides to write a book from the point of view of the maids (referred to as the help), exposing the racism they are faced with as they work for white families. Set in Jackson, Mississippi, it stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Ahna OReilly, Chris Lowell, Sissy Spacek, Mike Vogel, Cicely Tyson, LaChanze, and Allison Janney. Produced by DreamWorks Pictures and distributed by Disneys Touchstone Pictures label, the film opened to positive reviews and became a box-office success with a gross of $211.6 million[2] against its budget of $25 million. In February 2012, the film received four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress for Davis, Best Supporting Actress for Chastain, and a win for Best Supporting Actress for Spencer. On January 29, 2012, the film won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Plot In 1962 Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) is a 50-year-old black maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son. Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) is another black maid and Aibileens best friend whose outspokenness has gotten her fired a number of times; she has built up a reputation for being a difficult employee, but she makes up for this with her impressive cooking skills. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone) is a young white woman who has recently moved back home to her familys plantation after graduating from the University of Mississippi[3] to find that her beloved childhood maid, Constantine (Cicely Tyson), has quit while she was away. Skeeter is skeptical, because she believes Constantine would not have left without writing to her. Unlike her friends, who attended university to find husbands (and are now all married and having children), Skeeter is single, has a degree, and wants to begin a career as a writer. Her first job is as a homemaker hints columnist in the local paper. With Constantine gone, Skeeter asks Aibileen, the maid to her good friend, Elizabeth (Ahna OReilly), for her help in answering domestic questions. Skeeter becomes uncomfortable with the attitude her friends have towards their help, especially Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her Home Help Sanitation Initiative, a proposed bill to provide for separate toilets for black help because she believes (as she puts it) that black people carry different diseases to white people. Skeeter is one of the few who believe otherwise, and she decides to write a book based on the lives of the maids who have spent their entire lives taking care of white children. The maids are at first reluctant to talk to Skeeter, because they are afraid that they will lose their jobs or worse. Aibileen is the first to share her stories, after she overhears Hillys initiative, and realizes that the children whom she has been raising are growing up to be just like their parents. Her friend Minny has just been fired as Hillys maid as a punishment for Minny using the house bathroom during a thunderstorm (revealed by Aibileen to have spawned a tornado and killed eighteen people: ten white, eight black), instead of going to use the separate outdoor toilet. Hilly poisons all the other families against Minny, making it impossible for her to find other work, and her daughter is forced to drop out of school to find a job as a maid. Minny initially declines to participate in Skeeters book research, but later agrees to share her stories. Aibileen helps her find work with Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), who is married to a rich socialite, Johnny (Mike Vogel), but is an outcast from the other society ladies (as influenced by Hilly), because she was born into a working-class family and her husband is Hillys ex-boyfriend. Also, unlike Hilly, Celia treats Minny with respect. Skeeter writes a draft of the book, with Minny and Aibileens stories in it, and sends it to Elaine Stein (Mary Steenburgen), an editor for Harper & Row in New York City. Stein thinks there may be some interest in it, but requires at least a dozen more maids contributions before it can become a viable book. Believing that the book will only be publishable during the Civil Rights movement, which she believes is a passing fad, Stein advises Skeeter to finish the book soon. No one comes forward, until Medgar Evers is assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi, and Hillys latest maid is brutally arrested for attempting to pawn one of Hillys rings (which she found on the floor behind the couch while cleaning), to pay for her twins college tuition, after Hilly had refused to give her a loan. With racial tensions running high, the maids realize that Skeeters book will give them an opportunity for their voices to be heard, and Skeeter suddenly has numerous stories to include. Minny shares one last story with Skeeter and Aibileen, which she calls the Terrible Awful, to ensure that no one will reveal that the book was written about Jackson, Mississippi. As revenge for being fired and accused of stealing, Minny bakes a chocolate pie and delivers it to Hilly. After Hilly has finished two slices, Minny informs her that she has baked her own feces into the pie. Minny tells Aibileen and Skeeter that if they add that part into the book, Hilly will try to prevent anyone from figuring out that she made her eat human feces and will convince the town that the book is not about Jackson. The book is almost finished, except for Skeeters own story of being brought up by Constantine. Skeeter manages to find out what had happened to Constantine, when her mother, Charlotte (Allison Janney), finally explains that she very reluctantly fired her in order to save face during a reception. Soon afterwards, feeling guilty about the incident since the Phelans are quite close to their help, Charlotte had sent Skeeters brother to bring Constantine home from Chicago, Illinois, where she was living with her daughter Rachel (LaChanze), but he discovered that she had died, not long after leaving Jackson. However, Constantines daughter forgives them knowing that the family they served genuinely loved them. The book is accepted for publication and is a success, much to the delight of Skeeter and the maids. She shares her royalties with each of the maids who contributed, and is offered a job with a publishing company in New York City. She tells her boyfriend about the job and the book. Revolted by her ideas of racial equality, he immediately breaks up with her. Hilly later shows up at Skeeters house and confronts her about the book, intending to tell Charlotte about her daughters transgressions. However, Charlotte comes to her daughters defense, ordering Hilly off of her property. Charlotte and Skeeter then talk and heal the wounds between them. Minny in the meantime has confessed all to Celia, including the pie incident, after Celia and Hilly are involved in a tussle at a local charity benefit. Celia thanks her. One afternoon, Minny is climbing up the hill to work when Johnny pulls up behind her. Scared, Minny moves to protect herself and calls for Celia, but is stunned when Johnny actually thanks her for all that she has done for Celia. Johnny helps her gather her things and takes her inside, where Celia has prepared a dinner for Minny. She and Johnny tell Minny that she has a job with them for life if she wants it, then serve her dinner as thanks. Minny then leaves her abusive husband and takes her children with her, and never returns. Meanwhile, Hilly hatches a plan to get rid of Aibileen as Elizabeths help, by falsely accusing her of stealing silver. Elizabeth tries to defend Aibileen, but to no avail. Aibileen denounces Hilly as a godless woman and tells her that she will never have peace if she continues her vindictive ways, leaving her in limbo. Elizabeth is forced to accept the firing of Aibileen, and her daughter Mae Mobley cries by the window, shouting for Aibileen as she leaves to start a new life.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 14:56:16 +0000
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