1. NedRyerson1

   9

   Every minute while watching The Help, I was constantly surprised. At first, the movie seemed to me a simple story a young woman trying to become a well known writer collecting testimonies of black maids; but is so much under it. There is a society that lives in a perfect but paradoxical situation. This is formed by small families, in which neither of the parents have time to raise their children, so that job is done by a black maid, which in some cases are treat like a slave. The relation between the housewife and the maid is ruled by an unbreakable protocol; the black employees must use another bathroom than the family, different dishes to eat, not share food or drink with a white person and not touch a white adult because they can spread disease; but, and here is the paradox, they can take care of the children. Another paradox is that the white people treat the blacks as if they were animals, when twenty years ago, they criticized the Germans for their treatment of the Jews. I know that those things are on different levels, but both violet human rights. There are two things in the movie that are remarkable: the influence of the society in a single person and how that can make the difference between someone who discriminate black people (in contact with the society) and someone who treats them as equals (isolated from the society). The other thing is a concept, the idea that a small action (gathering stories or telling your own) can mean a big change in human mentality. This film deals with issues from different perspectives, but that is only complete with dazzling performances and a strong screenplay.… Expand

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2. TastyJamProject

   5

   The Help is well intentioned. That doesn't make it any less racist in its (fictional) storyline based on the south in 1950's America, with the idea that only a white woman can help black women find their voice. The only reason to see this film is the talent put forward by the electrifying Viola Davis and the gutsy performance from Octavia Spencer. Other than that, there's not much here with substance, and the more horrific events of the 1950's seem to be glossed over.… Expand

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     1 of 2 users said yes
3. jdicksteihn

   1

   The director, Tate Taylor, knows exactly how he wants the audience to feel about every character and every scene. He leaves almost no room for you to make up your own mind and so the deck continually feels stacked. You're not watching reality unfold, you're watching propaganda. Bryce Dallas Howard's character is set up to represent the racist white south. But her character is so devoid of any redeeming qualities that she feels like a straw-woman, and the effect is that the movie says very little other than "bad people are bad". Most insulting to the audience's intelligence, the last 45 minutes of the film consist of 6 or 7 manipulative tear-jerk-er scenes in a row. Complete with swelling "please cry" music, a forced break up scene, a "group standing up and applauding" scene, and a "crying child saying goodbye" scene. No movie cliche' is spared. I think this would be less objectionable in a film about young lovers, or a boy and his dog. But when you are making a movie about "the help" in the south, a minority group whose story has (according to the premise of the movie) not been told, then you owe it to them, I think, to just tell the story and leave out the "tear-jerk-er" play book. So I'd go beyond saying this is a bad movie. It is a socially irresponsible movie that sets itself up to be something it isn't: the story of "the help". Peeking through all the stupid Hollywood tricks is Viola Davis, whose performance suggests to us that underneath this trite movie was a real complicated story to be told, about real people. It is rare that an actor can transcend material like this, and the movie is worth seeing just for that amazing feat. But besides all this, you know a movie has no interest in reality when the strikingly beautiful Emma Stone, in full makeup and fashionable clothing, is sold as the 23 year old girl who has never been on a date. Change that plot point or change the actress.… Expand

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     1 of 3 users said yes

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