Oh dear, I've seen three good films in the last few weeks and haven't had a spare second to blog about them. This is what comes of deciding to take an evening class, and start making various complicated garments, all in the run-up to Christmas. However, as I've been looking forward to The Help for so long and finally saw it last night I decided I must blog about it. It is a fairly faithful adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel set in 1960s Mississippi, in Jackson to be specific, where Medgar Evers was shot for suggesting that black people should have the same rights as white people. The plot follows two black maids in and around the period when Evers was shot, and a white girl who decides to tell their stories in a book which will expose the racist attitudes simmering below the surface of respectable Jackson society.
I adored Kathryn Stockett's book, to the point where I have ranted to various people about how this book should be set reading in schools and should supersede To Kill a Mockingbird as it carries the same messages but in (arguably) a much more accessible and enjoyable manner. I was excited to see how relatively inexperienced director and screenwriter Tate Taylor would adapt the rich and dense story. I was even more excited when the cast was revealed: Viola Davis as Aibileen, Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly, Alison Janney as Mrs Phelan, and True Blood favourite Nelsan Ellis in a minor role. I suspect my expectations were too high as the film didn't quite meet them, but still I thoroughly enjoyed it and my only complaint is that it doesn't match the achievement of the book in expressing the extreme inbalance between the rights of black and white people in such a powerful way despite never explicitly showing the civil rights protests, the violence, or Evers' shooting (we hear about it on TV only, which Mrs Phelan soon turns off). The fim feels a little lighter, a little fluffier, but I can't put my finger on why exactly. Of course some sections of the book have to be chopped and changed, but the bulk of the maids' stories remain intact and it is only peripheral plot lines that are edited.
There is much to like about this film though; as I suspected the cast is brilliant. Howard nails the angelic exterior and toxic interior required for Hilly. Viola Davis is a perfectly lovable Aibileen and Octavia Spencer a hilariously out-spoken Minny. Emma Stone, who I adored in Easy A, wasn't quite the Skeeter I had in my head but makes her just as likable and funny as in the book. Allison Janney, as her mother, is brilliant and gets all the best lines, even if her cancer storyline is relegated to an occasional remark and a penchant for wigs. Cicely Tyson also deserves a mention as Skeeter's beloved maid Constantine, who appears only briefly but with an accent (cajun?) I could have listened to all day.
What the film does express even better than the book is how recent all of this was. Just by dint of actually visually showing us that this was in the swinging 60s; the gateway to the modern age, and yet the attitudes were no better than a century before. Seeing the cars, the clothes, the mod-cons, that I've seen a hundred times in old family photos, it's shocking to realise that when my parents were growing up black people in the American South were still regarded as second-class citizens, as a different species almost. It's powerful stuff but for anyone going to see the film who hasn't read the book I have to urge you to do both, as there is even more clout in the book, as well as more depth to the characters you'll love from the film.
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