Grade: A
I loved this book. I loved this movie.
The Help is the story of a young aspiring journalist who decides she wants to write a book from the perspective of "the help". As the story takes place in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi, you can guess the many challenges she faces. The story and the movie captures all the pain, cruelty and inequality of the times but from a uniquely female, subtle point of view. It's not preachy, it's just real and touches your heart.
The movie is full of wonderful performances and some surprising faces. (Just thinking about them makes me smile.)
Emma Stone as Skeeter is perfect. She is just who I pictured and she's my favorite young actress right now anyway.
Viola Davis as Aibileen, does a great job capturing her character's silent, stoic strength.
Octavia Spencer as Minnie is beyond perfection. The twinkle in her eye as she morphs into Minnie, steals her every scene.
Sissy Spacek. I almost didn't even recognize her and you just had to love her character. She really brought so much more to this character than was in the book.
Cicely Tyson as Constantine. So nice to see her in a film again. She always brought a regal presence to her characters and she does it again in this movie.
Allison Janney as Skeeter's mother and Mary Steenburgen as her NY publisher are both nice surprises.
Character you love to hate. Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly Holbrook. She is brilliant at bringing this character to life. Hate Hilly...love the performance. (This is Ron Howard's little girl. Talent likely runs in the family.)
Great story, great performances...how can it miss.
You should all know that BW went with me and he said it was one of the best movies he has seen in a long time. Told Krissy is was Oscar worthy. Not slight praise my friends. So feel free to bring along the man in your life. This is a chick-flick about as much as 12 Angry Men is a guy-flick.
There has sure been a lot of buzz about this! I'm glad you gave a review! Now that I know that we like some of the same BBC series, I'll definitely want to see this!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see this. Saw a preview and I think it looks saucy and fun.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reviewing!
I just saw it and LOVED it (loved the book too). I think I was prepared for a cry - I was even crying through the previews - that one about the odd life of something or other...
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that was Bryce Dallas Howard! You mean the same one that was in The Lady in the Water? She was so pretty (and the perfect horrible mean bitch) in The Help. Celia of course, was my favorite character (though I liked her in the book a bit better).
I, too, loved this movie and the book. I think the casting was extremely well done.
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