Film review, The Help

Last night I finally got around to watching the film adaptation of The Help. It was a good film in many ways but I did feel there were a couple of things I wasn't so impressed with.

The acting and the setting of the film are both understated and realistic, at no point do you feel that things are staged or fake. Emma Stone as Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark and Octavia Spencer as Minnie Jackson all put in performances of the highest calibre. The relationship between the three women grows as the film progresses, just as it does in the novel. The way the characters are portrayed makes their interactions believable and emotive. A special mention must go to Bryce Dallas Howard for her portrayal of the villain Hilly Holbrook, the character that you hate but offers some light comic relief at times. The setting was carefully designed with a close attention to detail. I particularly liked the 1960's vehicles and costumes. The clothes the women wore clearly defined their place in society; black or white, rich or poor; and to see the contrast in colour between the peacock dresses of the white society ladies and the drab grey uniforms of the black help are a strong visual reminder of the division. On the rare occasion that we see Aibileen or Minnie in their own clothes that splash of colour is shocking and makes them seem more real and human somehow.

On the other hand, I found there were a few things that I was not so keen on. This, I am sure, was as a result of having read the book.

If you were watching the film from a fresh viewpoint then perhaps you would just see the positives of it. The narrative voice in the novel is primarily Aibileen, with sections from Minnie and Skeeter. The film was more equally focused on all three women and I felt that this then lost some of the power of the novel through the detailed view you were given of the relationship between Mae Mobley, the white daughter of Elizabeth Leefolt, the employer, and Aibileen, her black surrogate mother. This had the further effect of having to slightly change the ending scene from the One in the novel. I felt this then made it lose some of it's heart breaking impact. A secondary character in the novel is Charlotte Phelan, Skeeter's mother and I found the way this character had been changed disappointing. In the novel she is strong in her nasty traits and impending death does not massively change her. In the film she changes to a great extent and I found this reconciliation of the characters too heartwarming and sickly.

The final aspect that disappointed me was perhaps the most significant. Throughout the novel there is an almost tangible sense of real fear built up through many episodes of near misses and panic stricken moments of hiding the evidence and coming close to being discovered. I am aware that a film is restricted through time and practicalities but I felt the lose of these episodes then did not communicate the fear that surrounded these events to the audience as well as the novel.

On the whole though, I did enjoy the film and will certainly be watching it again. Perhaps if I see it when the novel is not so fresh in my mind I will begin to appreciate it more for it's own merits as a well acted, well scripted film with a strong basis in history but with a human interest approach.