August 17, 2011

The Help is a Good Movie

Monica "Dr. mOe" Anderson, soulciti.com

I sent up a few prayers for the Regal Metropolitan ticket takers at the standing room only advanced screening of The Help. It’s bad enough they’re forced to wear oversized wool blazers that look as if they were made for The Hulk. They also had to turn away scores of people who arrived late and stood outside an hour in triple digit temperatures thinking free and general admission means “I saved you a seat” in Pig Latin. No, even arriving on time for a free event in Austin means “Sorry. The theatre is full. There’s a bar next door. Enjoy your imported beer and fourteen screens of the Golf Channel.” But I digress.

I arrived 90 minutes early and, one large bucket of buttered popcorn, a package of Twizzlers, and eight nachos later, I did see Dreamworks film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s #1 NY Times best-selling novel The Help. The book and movie are as much about friendship and trust as they are about race relations between African-American maids and their employers in 1962. The movie is perfectly cast with stars Emma Stone as Skeeter a white, recent college grad who views the help as equals unlike everyone else in her social circle, Academy Award-nominated Viola Davis as Aibileen the bent but unbroken maid, and Octavia Spencer as the divine Ms. Minny who steals every scene she’s in with her tell-all facial expressions and righteous indignation about the strange, racist fruit of Southern family trees.

Director Tate Taylor (who was childhood BFF’s with the author) does an impressive job of mixing humor and hate without diluting the bitter taste of Jim Crow’s last call. Cicely Tyson appears in flashback scenes looking like Jane Pittman in a maid’s uniform to remind us with her patented crooked finger pointing that evil does expire. (Her complexion is flawless, by the way. Isn’t she a hundred years-old?) And Sissy Spacek is award worthy for her portrayal of the demented, mildly racist mother of Junior League President, Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) who is very racist but not as yet diagnosed insane.

The movie is a little slow and melodramatic at times like when baby Mae Mobley is saying things to her beloved black nanny that my grandson never says to me. But overall, it’s worth the money for the great cast and history lessons. I only hope you have the pleasure, as I did, of watching this segregated movie in an integrated theatre. Then, lines like “Sometimes courage skips a generation” make you smile extra wide inside …and out.

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