The Help

Now I don't usually get into the Oscars nor do I usually care what motion picture is up for best picture. Same goes for the actors. The one time I did place an Oscar wager was for best picture between the overrated and over hyped Avatar against the gritty realism of The Hurt Locker. I was right then and damned if I am not right now. Viola Davis WILL win the Oscar for best actress or supporting actress in her portrayal as Aibileen Clark in The Help. You've read it here first and if she doesn't win it will be a travesty the likes of the shutting out of The Color Purple by the academy (cause everyone knows Purple got ROBBED!).

Directed by relative neophyte Tate Taylor The Help is based on the novel by the same name from Kathryn Stockett. It tells the story of the maids in Jackson Mississippi during the 1960's and the indignities they endured at the hands of their employers, if you want to call them that. The movie follows spunky Skeeter Phelan played by Emma Stone, fresh out of college and returned home to family and friends. She wants to be a writer, a journalist, and a novelist but she was turned down by Harper Collins so she instead takes a job at the local paper writing a housewife tip column. Skeeter isn't happy with just the column though, she has bigger plans and pitches an idea for a book that tells what life is like from the maids point of view. No one is willing to talk to her, especially after the assassination of Medgar Evers but after one brutal arrest and the word of God changed all that.

This movie is a powerful movie but it could have fallen flat had it not been perfectly cast. True talent was needed to be on the screen alongside Viola and not get blown away and the casting directors and the producers did a fantastic job of assembling talent that can hold their own. Starting off with Octavia Spencer who plays Aibileen's best friend Minny Jackson, Octavia is best described as a character actor but those days are about to be over thanks to her performance as the mercurial Minny. Bryce Dallas Howard brings to vivid life the racist Hilly Holbrook who is the perfect foil for Emma Stones Skeeter. Allison Janney plays Skeeter's mother Charlotte Phelan and she has her very own moment of reckoning thanks to Skeeter not letting go of what happened to their own housekeeper Constantine played by the immortal Cicely Tyson. Sissy Spacek plays the absent minded Missus Walters, the mother of Hilly. Jessica Chastain plays the insecure Celia Foots and Ahna O'Reilly plays the easily manipulated Elizabeth Lefoolt. The cast is phenomenal so you have some idea just how good the acting is.

It's a moving, disturbing, and offensive movie because it gives you insight to what race relations were like before civil rights took hold. It gave you just a touch of the fear African Americans dealt with while living in the Jim Crow south. It will upset you as well as entertain you and don't be surprised when the credits roll that you don't find yourself applauding, it's that good. Scored by the subtle hand of Thomas Newman the music is perfect. Granted it sounds like almost everything else Thomas Newman has done but why fix what's not broken?

I had no desire to read this book but if the book is half as good as the movie is (and the books usually are) then this book must be an absolute amazing read. I don't think you can really go wrong if you read the book first or see the movie first and if you see the movie first then I'll see you at the theater!