Feb 01 2012
Red Box Review– The Help #redbox
The Help (2011– 146 mins) Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer 
Skeeter Phelan (Stone) is fresh out of college and wanting to show the world what she can do. She’s got aspirations of being a bigtime writer back in her small town world. However, the world doesn’t exactly work like that, and she finds her life a bit unfulfilling for a bit. She also begins to notice some old world thinking that still exists back in her small town. Some of it manifests itself in the treatment of their house keepers/nannies/cooks all rolled into one person they call “the help”. She starts to notice that these black women do everything around the house and then some including often being the only main friend/caregiver to the kids, and are generally treated like utter crap and paid as crappy.
Skeeter then gets an idea for a tell all book. A book which will tell “anonymous” stories of the help and the times they have had to endure and some of the hi jinks they have had in their times as well. It would be quite eye opening and scandalous if she can pull it off and it might even manage to open some eyes of people in the south and how their treatment of employees just just plain wrong.
It’s a pretty straightforward movie with plenty of heart , comedy and some decent side stories and anecdotes. It’s a real enjoyable story from beginning to end with a few surprises. I thought it would be a bit cheesy with it’s heart but I stand corrected as it never really goes too far with it, and I found myself enjoying the movie quite a bit. The only fault I find with the movie is it’s run time is a bit artificially long and could have stuck to right at (or just under) 2 hours. But most people won’t notice this during the film b/c as I said it’s an enjoyable ride.
Verdict—> It’s as good as advertised and a fun movie to watch. A great movie for date night as all women will enjoy the chick-centric humor and throwback to the past in the setting. A top recommendation for couples dates etc and anyone looking for a good family film (not the smaller of the kids for some situations and language).
