The Help

Subtlety can be oft-neglected when portraying the civil rights era cinematically and this latest Hollywood adaptation (based on Kathryn Stockett's bestseller of the same name) appears initially overcooked with stereotypes while gently simmering a message that shouldn’t be so, erm, black and white.   

Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone), a plucky young writer, embarks on a mission to tell the story of black maids raising white children in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. Here, unlikely friendships are formed, a sense of sisterhood emerges and a dozen other movie clichés are checked off in what could have been a movie-of-the-week pitch. 

Though the themes and sensibilities of The Help are heavy handed, the complex performances from the eponymous servants — Viola Davis as Aibileen and Octavia Spencer as Minny – give Taylor's thin melodrama some much needed gravitas. Davis’ turn of aching, determined dignity and Spencer's sassy exuberance act like tractor-beams, pulling in emotional investment and overpowering the film's other fine, but thankless, performances. 

The lessons of breaking boundaries may be simplistic and self-evident, but the emotional endeavour of these core acting turns transcend the narrative limitations and deliver a sweeping feel-good movie that will brighten your day, if you let it. [Thom Atkinson]