The Help

Who is Tate Taylor? Male. Aged about 42. Has acted in bit parts in about 7 movies to date including the much acclaimed Winter’s Bone and starting with the not so acclaimed Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion (Mira Sorvino, Lisa Kudrow). He was classmates and great friends with Kathryn Stockett who made it to the big league as an author when her book titled The Help was published in 2009 – spending over 100 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List. Well turns out that Taylor chose his friends wisely and eventually his projects too. His first movie as a director– Pretty Ugly People – wasn’t received too well. But I guess he fell hard and learnt really well. With “The Help” he has pretty much dispelled all doubts that people may have had about his capability to direct and write screenplay. Kudos to the winning pair for having given us one of the better movies from Hollywood this year (at least those released in India).

Something that has never ceased to amaze me is the absolute racial discrimination that existed (some say it continues to exist) in the southern states of the US – especially one town called Jackson in Mississippi. Now my information is limited to what I have seen in documentaries and movies but it has always made me feel so much better of the world that we currently live in. Kathryn Stockett has picked up the topic of coloured household helps in 1960s who had to face probably the most organized and gut wrenching experiences through their lives. Young American women in the 60s had their lives pretty much cut out I guess with college followed by marriage and eventually a litter to manage. But the ones bringing up the kids were called “The Help”. They were pretty much surrogate mothers and responsible for everything else @ home. Only to watch the kids grow up exactly into what their parents were and look the other way when it came to the topic of being treated equally. Painful right?

The movie is slow alright but keeps you engaged through great screenplay and fantastic performances. Viola Davis in superb the role of Aibileen Clark – who first decides to break the shackles by agreeing to interview with Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan played by the extremely talented Emma Stone. And Octavia Spencer in the role of the spunky Minny Jackson was as good. One cannot but appreciate the performances of the supporting cast – despite their not so positive roles – namely Bryce Dallas Howard. And then there was Jessica Chastain. Both are clearly asking Hollywood to take more notice.

I don’t remember the last time I saw a movie which was so dominated by female characters – all powerfully essayed. Long and as mentioned earlier, slow, but must be added to your watch list for the year. Not necessarily on the big screen but watch it because there are at least 3 Oscar nominations coming up – Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Mind you this is from the limited number of movies released in India this year. I hope I am right. If not, there are at least 5 more movies to be seen for performances which are much better. Good news either ways. 7.5 on 10 from my side for The Help.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi809278745/