First Hit: A superb film depicting racism in Mississippi.
In the 1950’s in Jackson Mississippi most homes had a black maid.
These maids, “The Help”, worked full time in homes raising white folk’s children, making their food and cleaning their homes for ~$185.00 a month. This practice had been passed down through generations and generations.
The maids could not use the toilets of the homes they worked in and often had to go out into bad weather just to relieve themselves.
This film traces the story of a number of these maids, mainly Aibileen (played by Viola Davis), Minny (played by Octavia Spencer), and Constantine (played by Cicely Tyson) as they gain the strength and willingness to speak to Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (played by Emma Stone) about what it is like to be a maid in a white person’s house (and world).
Skeeter was raised by Constantine and wants to be a writer and as she watches her friends and the way they treat their maids, she knows there is a powerful story lying in wait. It is risky for these maids to speak to Skeeter, but they do because the racial tensions throughout the United States are rising as we move through the early 1960s.
What struck me about this film was the audacity of people to treat their help in the way that they did. Yes, I could say they knew no better and had always known this way of life, but in my heart I don’t believe this to be true. I think they all knew what they were doing was simply wrong.
This film embodies one of the last overt gasps of racism in the south and the feeling of superiority of one person over another. Mind you, I cannot say racism is gone in the United States, but it has come a long way in the last 50 years.
Davis, is outstanding and extraordinary as a maid who cares deeply about the children she cares for, while in deep pain about her son who was killed through the neglect of other whites. Spencer, is both funny and powerful as a maid who gets fired but then gives her previous boss their just deserts. Bryce Dallas Howard (playing Hilly Holbrook) embodies the sinister ways of white southern women and how they wanted to control and be above their maids. Stone is marvelous as the young woman who left Jackson for an education, came back and saw the injustices and found a way to give voice to The Help. Jessica Chastain (playing Celia Foote) was fully engaging as the outsider who wants to fit in but never really sees her maid as less than herself. Tate Taylor wrote a stunning script. All southern nuances were alive in the writing. Then Taylor turned right around and directed this amazing script in a profoundly wonderful way.
Overall: This is a powerful film which provides a clear picture of how we needed (and need) to change.