“The Help” was released in the Summer 2011, but it is on the spotlight again because of its several nominations to this year’s Oscar awards (Best Picture, and Best Actresses in leading and supporting roles). February is Black History Month, and this movie, based on the New York Times bestseller of the same title, brings in its little contribution to acknowledge one of the many fights African-Americans endured, in this case during the 1960’s in Mississippi.
The fictional story follows different women in the efforts of bringing civil rights into the town of Jackson, where black maids were common in mostly all white families’ houses. Eugenia "Skeeter" (Emma Stone), a young white woman, starts writing a book about the reality lived by Jackson’s maids, helped by Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer), two middle-age black maids who serve at Eugenia’s friends’ houses. As the book takes shape, we witness these women’s stories and struggles, and discover the hidden world and reality of this little niche of Black History.
The movie got wonderful reviews and general acceptance, and even though the story is fiction, it makes an effort to show the reality of these women in the hard times of the early 60’s. Despite some historical or cultural inaccuracies some people might find, this wonderful movie brings such amazing performances (almost the entire cast is female: Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard, Emma Stone, Cicely Tyson, or Allison Janey –to name the main ones-, are all worthy of praise and awards), such enjoyable script, and so many great moments of laughs and tears, it will certainly leave a mark on any receptive viewer.
The movie has already been released on Blue-ray DVD, which is also available on Netflix.
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