The Help

[Deleted]

Aug 21, 2011 13:54:38 GMT -4 Sunnyhorse said:

ETA: OT, but why did y'all hate Jumping the Broom? I was looking forward to Netflixing it, thinking it would be something along the lines of The Best Man, which I really liked (other than the oddly unsatisfying ending). (Yeah, I love a wedding-themed film starring gorgeous people -- don't judge!)

It had a good premise, but the execution was all over the place. There were storylines that went nowhere, came out of nowhere, or made no sense. I felt like I was watching three or four different movies at one point.

[bklynred]

I enjoyed this so much. I think the movie was really true to the book. All I could do was call my writing prof afterward (she edited the manuscript) and rave to her about how relieved I was that Hollywood hadn't effed it up. Great casting, Emma sold me on Skeeter, and not one actor made me think "Hmmm, they could've done better w/ someone else." I really, really hope the author is working on something else; not on the same subject, naturally, but I wouldn't mind some southern noir. I was only surprised that I was weepy throughout; I wasn't while reading the book.

[huntergrayson]

Just got back and thought it was very well done. The craziest thing is that I didn't even realize Nelsan Ellis from True Blood was in this until the credits! I guess I didn't recognize him with glasses.

I totally concur with bklynred on the perfect casting - Seriously, I don't even want to praise one actress more than the other because the cast was so uniformly good.

[addison]

Aug 25, 2011 17:15:22 GMT -4 bklynred said:

I enjoyed this so much. I think the movie was really true to the book. All I could do was call my writing prof afterward (she edited the manuscript) and rave to her about how relieved I was that Hollywood hadn't effed it up. Great casting, Emma sold me on Skeeter, and not one actor made me think "Hmmm, they could've done better w/ someone else." I really, really hope the author is working on something else; not on the same subject, naturally, but I wouldn't mind some southern noir. I was only surprised that I was weepy throughout; I wasn't while reading the book.

I saw this yesterday and thought it was really good - and I'm with you on being weepy through the whole movie. It's been a while since a movie has gotten to me like that - i though was prepared since I'd read the book. I thought they captured the book really well. They did a great job with casting - I was telling my sister how good Viola Davis was, and Octavia Spencer, and ended up naming practically everyone. I didn't even recognize Jessica Chastain until I saw the credits.

[Mugsy]

I think it's fantastic that a movie about women - that isn't a rom com - is doing so well. See, Hollywood? Women do like going to movies if you give us something interesting to see.

Not that women will only, or have to, watch movies about women - or conversely, that men won't. But when Hollywood constantly rolls out the "movies about women don't do well" cliche, it sucks. Many movies about men have flopped too. It's the content, not the people in the movie, that is to blame.

I haven't seen this yet, although I loved the book, but hope to see it Wednesday. Reading posts, I'll be sure to have some kleenex in my pocket.

[huntergrayson]

I was the only guy at my theater on my own and not being dragged there by a girlfriend/wife. Which is sad because it's a well-done movie and I think it's the only major Hollywood release of the summer that's a serious (but not overly so) drama made for adults.

I really like Salon's reviewer and adore his final paragraph of his review and the last line re: the weepiness:

I have no idea how Taylor got this directing assignment, given that his only previous feature was a nearly unreleased low-budget comedy called "Pretty Ugly People." But the result is a richly satisfying theatrical entertainment, very much in the vein of a classic Hollywood "women's film" or a lesser Tennessee Williams play. Along with Stone and Davis and Howard and Spencer, he gives ample screen time to Jessica Chastain, who nearly steals the show as Celia Foote, a "white trash" wife rejected by Jackson's fembot aristocracy; Allison Janney, as Skeeter's mother, dying of cancer but determined to fix her up with a well-positioned fiancé; Ahna O'Reilly, as Hilly's toadying sidekick; Sissy Spacek, as a senile but genial matriarch; and the great Cicely Tyson, in a brief role as Skeeter's beloved childhood maid. It's a veritable smorgasbord of great female performances, and I don't care how analytical you are about "The Help" as a social signifier, you're still gonna laugh and think uncomfortable thoughts and cry like a little kid with a dead gerbil. Bring a pocketful of tissues. On second thought, these are hard times, no matter what color you are; buy the generic brand and bring the whole box.

[bklynred]

Great review. Said it better than I could've. I told my mom once she's ready for a "day out", I'd see it again with her.

[Mugsy]

So I FINALLY got to see this, and it did not disappoint. Very close to the book, although some things were left out. I would have liked it if they had mentioned that Aibileen officially had the Miss Myrna column now, so that viewers would know she wasn't completely without an income and that another colour barrier had been crossed.

My daughter mentioned - and I agree - that Jessica Chastain looked like Julia Roberts. The same profile, the same mouth, the same hand-fluttering mannerisms.

[jmc]

Viola Davis was good, that's the best thing I have to say about this movie. It was a movie slightly about black domestics for white women, what more can I say about it.

I hope for a day that there will be a movie about black maids from exclusively black womens pov, who knows if or when that day will ever come.

[Deleted]

I finally saw this and, while I liked it, I was still a bit disappointed. The casting was perfect as was the acting. But I felt that the movie lacked a lot of the book's drama and emotion. It wasn't exactly turned into a feel-good story as many critics said, but I thought that there could have been more about the women's fear of being found out, for example.
I realize they wanted to focus on Aibileen for the movie version which was good, but what was that about Minny just being able to leave her abusive husband? Didn't that take some persuading from Aibileen because Minny didn't know where to go with all her kids? She was a strong woman but she was scared shitless of her crazy husband and the consequences of her being part of the book might have. And quite rightly, didn't her husband and her daughter lose their jobs because of her involvement? I may remember that incorrectly though.


Another thing, though a minor one, I didn't like was that they changed the whole money thing. In the book the women gave the money that Skeeter originally paid them to help Yule May's boys to go to college after she was sent to prison and all their savings were gone. In the movie we have a scene of Minny and Aibileen celebrating that they're rich and no mention whatsover of what happened to Yule May? That was weird and I wish they had put in how (almost) all the women refused to take Skeeter's money.

I did cry at the ending though because all the scenes between Aibileen and Mae Mobley broke my heart, just like they did in the book.