review: the help (2011)

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5 out of 5 stars

Funny, witty, emotional and eye-opening, this film has earned a special spot in my heart. If you aren't familiar with this movie, here are a few points to sum it up:

• 1960s Jackson, Mississippi 
• Civil Rights Movement
• 23-year-old aspiring female writer documenting the African-American maids' (aka The Help) point of view on the white families they work for and the adversities they encounter from being a person of colour
• Struggling to understand the conflicts of gender stereotypes and the treatment of coloured people in a racist 1960s South? This movie has got you covered. It definitely saved my back while studying the civil rights movement. 

Seeing the conflict unfold and the severity of everything... I don't know, I think it seems rather ironic to watch it in a time of Ferguson and similar events whereby coloured men have been wrongly victimised by white supremacy.  

Despite the different contexts, you can just see how the fear and oppression is what holds communities from progressing and breaking down racial barriers. Its crazy to think that racist and gender bias events in The Help are still going on, just in different ways. 

Skeeter (Emma Stone) is the writer, and she strives to interview African-American maids in order to show the world what really happens. Initially, Minny and Aibileen are the ones who hop on board the mission, while the other maids are too wary but drawn out when catastrophe strikes. This is incredible, because when had someone ever asked these maids how they felt?

Celia and Minny, otherwise known as my favourite characters in the movie

The highlights of this movie has got to be the relationships. Aibileen and Minny's friendship has been forged by hardships as maids and Minny and Celia's friendship was golden, both women feeling the isolation from society and hate from Hilly, the psycho antagonist. Minny and Celia brought so much comic relief to such a tense movie, honestly. 

Acting in this film is A+, and I loved how it didn't focus on Skeeter. She was more like the medium by which change can happen. Applause for the director/producers/actors/etc. because everything was spot on and the integration of Minny's Terrible Awful? Legendary. Its not one of those movies that try to be all dramatic and dark. I suppose you can say the humour in it brings out the darkness. 

My favourite scene was definitely EAT MY SH*T! [rolls on the floor and cries by laughter] 

This film made me laugh and cry for all the right reasons. If you've watched it, please, let me know your thoughts!

I'm hoping to read the book sometime in the year, and I have a inkling that it's going to have a profound impact on my attitudes.


Over and out
xx Cece