The Help
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Based on the New York Times bestselling novel, starring Emma Stone (Zombieland, Superbad) as a young woman who creates a stir in 1960s Mississippi by writing a book that interviews the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent, white southern families.
Skeeter (Stone) is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer. Uncomfortable with attitudes toward "the help" - especially with Hilly Holbrooks (Bryce Dallas Howard, Spider-Man 3) and her 'Sanitation Initiative' which proposes a bill to provide separate bathrooms for black maids - Skeeter decides to write a book about the black women who have spent their lives raising white children. Afraid of losing their jobs (or worse), the maids are reluctant to talk. But the floodgates open when Aibileen (Viola Davis, Doubt) opens up, and when the powerful Civil Rights movement spreads to Mississippi.
Starring
Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney, Mike Vogel, David Oyelowo, Ahna O'Reilly, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer
Directed by
Tate Taylor ('Pretty Ugly People')
Written by
Tate Taylor
Festivals & Awards
Winner of Best Supporting Actress (Spencer) at the 2012 Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Golden Globes 2012. Winner of Best Ensemble Cast at the National Board of Review Awards 2011.
(M) contains adult themes | Adaptation, Drama | USA | Official Website
USER REVIEWS
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Average rating 
SMASHING
it was an awesome movie and no movie is better then the the help
Reviewed by RuthiGreat
Alot of truth in this movie and even in society today in some respects. Good story which kept you watching all the way through.
Reviewed by TraceyDeserves a standing ovation!
This movie was very well done, they couldn't have done much better. One that can be watched over and over! Love it!
It was good, moving and thought provoking but not, personal opinion, amazing.
Reviewed by angeA-MAZ-ING!
I knew this movie was gona be good but my gosh it's the best movie I've seen in a long time (aside from girl with the dragon tattoo series) I highly recommend!!!!
Reviewed by kirstenAMAZING
A mixture of great humour, sadness and love. Well deserved 5 star!
Reviewed by BenI Love It!
I love this movie. I want to watch it over and over again. I feel so bad for the black women that have to maid for those white women.
Reviewed by Fairmont MurrayPowerful and truthful
Watched this movie on the plane back to Auckland. It was fabulous. It really showed what life was like for maids during this era, and how they were treated. One woman heard their stories and changed the maids lives for the better. A movie you must watch! Touching, you may shed a few tears!
Reviewed by AmandaPRESS REVIEWS
Average rating
A.V. Club (USA)
Shot like an inductee in the Hallmark Hall Of Fame, The Help covers an ugly era in superficial gloss...
Click to read full review.Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
This is a good film, involving and wonderfully acted.
Click to read full review.Hollywood Reporter
This self-conscious and self-congratulatory portrait of the Jim Crow South does at least contain two magnificent, award-worthy performances.
Click to read full review.Los Angeles Times
The movie exists within an emotionally charged landscape sometimes too starkly black and white — there is no room for ambiguity at this table.
New York Times
If the movie’s director, Tate Taylor, had his way, your tear ducts would be sucked dry by that big finish...
Click to read full review.Rolling Stone
Short on style and flashy technique, The Help on film compensates with genuine emotional force.
Click to read full review.Sunday Star Times (Kim Knight)
There is humour, drop dead gorgeous costuming, and plenty of great acting to recommend The Help.
Click to read full review.Time (USA)
Taylor's adaptation is a finely crafted distillation of the book; even at two and a half hours it never lags.
Time Out (USA)
The tone lashes excruciatingly between lip-quivering solemnity and crowd-pleasing sass.
Click to read full review.Variety (USA)
The film emphasizes hankie-tugging sisterhood over pricklier issues that continue to divide the races today.
Click to read full review.Flicks.co.nz "The Help" Movie Review
Flicks.co.nz rating
Rebecca Barry Hill, Flicks.co.nz
The Help feels overdone at first, the baddies too evil, the do-gooders too earnest. But as Tate Taylor’s vision of racist 1960s Mississippi emerges, the film’s larger-than-life personality ceases to matter. The Help wears its heart on its sleeve, and history wasn’t comfortable, even as the civil rights movement dawned. It’s a feel-good, revenge-seeking – and yes, shit-eating – satire, the kind that makes you want to shout "go girl!" from the cinema aisle, even if you know what’s coming.
It’s also a moralistic tearjerker of the highest order. Courage, doing what’s right, taking a stand for those who don’t have a voice – these are the core themes of Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel and they’re adapted in broad, big-budget form here, with Emma Stone as the brave society girl keen to expose the plight of the city’s black maids serving white families. It’s thanks to the film’s leading ladies that the film steers mostly clear of saccharine territory.
Stone regularly lights up the screen in youthful fantasies (Superbad, Easy A) but here she shows she’s capable of depth and maturity. She’s almost shown up however by Viola Davis, as quietly dignified maid Aibileen, the brilliant Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life) as sunny outcast Celia, and Bryce Dallas Howard, who puts in a hilarious performance as the film’s villain, Hilly. The Help clocks in at over two hours yet it never lags, and the impact it leaves is of an epic story told with warmth and a sense of intimacy.
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