Best Picture Nominees, "The Help"

We're getting back to blogging, and ideally staying with it this time. It shouldn't be difficult for me right now, because we're in the throngs of my absolute favorite time of the year. The Oscar race has been on for awhile and the event is 17 days away. Normally I do either or both a blog with my predictions, and a blog with my show recap and review. This year, I'll be presenting both of those, but in doing so I'm also going to cover each of the nine nominees for Best Picture individually, but in no particular order. We'll start today with a film that was released this past August into theaters: "The Help".

"The Help" is adapted from a popular but somewhat-controversial novel by Kathryn Stockett. The film rights were purchased by her childhood friend Tate Taylor, who in turn wrote and directed the film. Some questions arose about how a white author could properly portray such a story, and the questions increased when a white writer/director was making the film version. The biggest critical claim was that in the book and moreso in the film, the actual racial themes were only glanced over. Nonetheless, Stockett and Taylor persevered and found themselves having no problem getting what turns out to be a tremendous ensemble cast for the film, including three Oscar nominees in Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.

[I should probably point out that in doing these reviews, I'll be giving a bit of a synopsis of the story, so there may be spoilers ahead. I'll do my best to avoid giving away anything major, but proceed at your own risk just the same.]

The story centers around Aibileen (Davis), the maid of a white family who's mother, Elizabeth (Ahna O'Reilly), is rather flippant when it comes to raising her baby. Davis has raised many white babies in her position so she willingly fills the void. Minny (Spencer) is another maid employed by Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard), who happens to be a town leader and a roaringly racist individual, constantly putting down the maids and their ilk. We're soon also introduced to Emma Stone's character, who goes by the nickname Skeeter. She's returned to her family home to find the maid who raised her was recently fired. Skeeter's mom (Allison Janney, wonderful as always) won't talk about it, however.

Hilly is spearheading a campaign to provide separate bathrooms in the homes for the maids, with her clouded reasoning for this being that she thinks "they" carry diseases and therefore shouldn't be using the toilets within the family home. Hilly pushes for this to go into the town newsletter, which Skeeter is operating. Meanwhile, Skeeter does not share the racist views of most of the others and decides she wants to write a book with the stories of the maids finally being told, and by the very maids within this Mississippi town. Most of the maids are unwilling to talk to Skeeter in fear of being fired, or arrested, or worse. However, Aibileen starts to open up for Skeeter and the seeds of a new friendship are unexpectedly born.

During a severe thunderstorm, Minny requested from Hilly to use the family toilet instead of having to go outside to use her designated one. Hilly refuses the request, but Minny ignores this and is promptly fired. She finds work later with Celia (Chastain), a rather dim bulb but a goodhearted person who tries in vain to "fit in" with the rest of the socialite crowd. Celia also treats Minny with a great deal more respect than Hilly did.

Skeeter's story has interest from a publisher (Mary Steenburgen) but she needs to provide more examples. This proves difficult, but eventually Minny aids in sharing her stories as well. The movie then presents us with both a real and a fictional crucial moment in civil rights history, and the fact that they both happen within hours of one another causes practically every maid in town to now willingly talk to Skeeter and become a part of the crusade. (I personally think the moment in the film where Skeeter walks in and sees the room full of maids is the single most powerful moment in the movie.) One of the stories that eventually gets told is Minny's story of what she did on her one and only visit to Hilly after being fired. That story is too good to spoil here, but as a movie viewer you will certainly enjoy the results. In time, we see that Skeeter's book is finished and we experience the fallout, both positive and negative, that results of it. Several characters undergo a bit of a change in philosophy, we learn what becomes of several of the main and supporting characters, and ultimately new lives begin for several of them as well.

"The Help" was a huge success critically and commercially, easily the biggest moneymaker of 2011 amongst the Best Picture nominees, earning nearly $170M in North America alone. The film also was #1 at the box office for a period of several weeks, which in this day and age is a feat not easily accomplished. Some negative statements were still out there from some, saying that the film did not at all accurately portray the truth of how whites and blacks co-existed at this time in Mississippi or anywhere else. However, all involved with the film were and are 100% happy with the story that was presented in the film.

I personally loved the film. I had been eager for it to be released last year for a good long time. For whatever reason, though, I never got around to seeing it until last month. I wish I would have seen this one much earlier. The film received 4 Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Actress for Davis, Best Supporting Actress for Spencer and Chastain) and has won many accolades already this awards season, including the top honor from the Screen Actors Guild. It would seem to be in the middle of the pack as far as the odds go of winning the top Academy Award prize, but the film was loved enough by moviegoers and critics to not be counted out by any means.

"The Help" is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray, or can be viewed via live stream from YouTube, Amazon and other outlets.