In Defense of "The Help"

Good Morning Friends,

This weekend I saw the film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help. Starring Emma Stone and Viola Davis, this is a wonderful example of adapting a book into a movie because it stayed true to the source. I wasn't sure if I was going to like this film or not; when I saw the previews, I was so disappointed. They made the world of 1960s Jackson, Mississippi look shiny, sparkly and squeaky clean, which anyone with a haphazard knowledge of the Civil Rights movement knows it definitely was not. These trailers lacked the gritty darkness that made the book such a success, and I was worried that Hollywood had stripped away all of the best parts of the story in order to make it more appealing. However, the movie proved that first impression wrong. All the grit and gut-wrenching elements that were in the book are present and accounted for in the film, and I couldn't be more pleased.

Skeeter , Minny and Aibileen after their book has been published.

Not everyone loves this story as much as I do though. The Help has been criticized as another addition to the what can be called nouveau-racism, where change and social equality only happen because a member of the majority helps the minority. I do agree that books and films that feature tales such as these are ridiculous and offensive because they assume that the down-trodden can accomplish nothing without help from the powerful. I think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X disprove that point. Yet, that's not what I got out of this story. Sure, at first it appears that way. Young, privileged and white Skeeter (played by Emma Stone) decides to make a name for herself by using the stories of African American maids to try to bring something that hasn't been written before to a New York City publisher. However, what began as a job turns into a partnership between Skeeter and two other maids, Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer). The strength and power of those two characters saves this plot. Skeeter is a lovely girl and played charmingly by Stone, but you could take Skeeter out of Jackson and plop her into any chick lit setting. The real weight and power of the story lies with the help, and they give this tale its heart and soul. I hope the Academy takes note of Davis' superb performance because I'm pulling for her for every award out there! 

For me, there's a reason why the novel begins and ends with Aibileen. She is the true protagonist of The Help. She is intelligent, kind and wise, and Davis gave her such a melancholy richness with a depth of feeling that I haven't seen in a movie in a long time. Aibileen, Minny and all of the other women who tell their tales to Skeeter are each heroines. They have the most to lose but decide to do the right thing and try to change the world. Or Jackson, at least. They are more that domestics; they are fighters. And I hope that audiences will see The Help as more than a feel-good story with a can-do spirit, but as a celebration of all of those women who raised babies who weren't their own and cleaned houses where they would never be invited to dinner. It's a reminder that this foreign world where life itself in all areas, from movie theaters to hospitals, was kept separate and very unequal and was the norm less that 50 years ago. I only wish that those women in real life could have had the chance to tell their stories like these characters did.

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