THE HELP

Based on the bestselling novel by Kathryn Stockett, ‘The Help’ chronicles the secret writing project of 21-year-old recent college graduate, Skeeter (Emma Stone), and the two black maids she employs for information, Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer).  The story takes place in 1960s Mississippi and racial tensions are still very high.  Skeeter, in attempts to become a respected writer, decides to write a novel from the point of view of “the help”.  To gain insight and credibility she seeks out family maids from around the small town where she lives to help her.  Many being hesitant due to the consequences it might bring, Skeeter finally gets Aibileen and Minny to assist her, promising the book will be authored anonymously.  When the book is finally published the town and its racial relations are brought to light.

After finally seeing the film on DVD recently I, as some of the people I had talked to, felt it was fairly over-hyped.  I don’t want to take away from the performances of the cast, it really is a great acting piece from all the players, but it seems it got a positive boost from critics based on its subject matter rather than its technical aspects.  As Kate Winslet stated during her Oscar speech for her win in ‘The Reader’, “if you do a holocaust film, you’ll get an Oscar.”  The same can be said for racial (‘Monster’s Ball’), and recently gay (‘Brokeback Mountain’, ‘Milk’, ‘Monster’), subject material.  Unfortunately the examples I gave were overall better films than ‘The Help’ but the reason they got noms/wins over other superior films/performances in past years was their subject material.

‘The Help’ will most likely get nominations for Best Picture and Screenplay, which I think are undeserved.  However the front runner status of Davis and Spencer for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress I believe is just.  Along with a surprising turn from Stone, the acting really carries the film and makes it watchable, without such performances I don’t think I could even warrant a Red Box rental recommendation to anybody.  So there you have it, another overrated film that will get undue credit at the Oscars (‘The Descendants’ is most notable this year), could we expect anything less from The Academy?

OSCAR CHANCES:

Best Picture: Lock

Best Adapted Screenplay (Tate Taylor): Highly Likely

Best Actress (Davis): Lock

Best Supporting Actress (Spencer): Lock

Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Chastain): Highly Likely