Day 79: No One Ever Asked Me What It Felt Like To Be Me

THE HELP (2011)
Directed by Tate Taylor
Starring: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Ahna O'Rilley, Allison Janey, Cicely Tyson, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Chris Lowell

A lot has already been said - and will continue to be said - about The Help.  Of all the Oscar nominees for Best Picture (that I've yet seen), this one has garnered some of the most divisive reviews.  Some say it's a wonderful drama about the plight of black housemaids in the South against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement.  Others say it's a slick, Hollywood treatment that glosses over the big issues while perpetuating negative racial stereotypes.  So who's right?  Let's find out.

The story centers around a black housemaid named Aibileen (Davis), who has dedicated her life to raising the babies of privileged white women.  Every well-to-do family in the South in the had "colored help" to do all the domestic work.  The only difference between this and slavery was that the workers were paid (though as little as possible).  Aibileen is kind, courteous and does her job well.  The story also centers on Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Stone), a forward-thinking writer who notices the plight of the women who basically raised her and her upper-middle-class white bridge club friends.  Skeeter originally plans to seek Aibileen's advice while she writes her domestic advice column, but the more she learns about Aibileen - and remembers about her own housemaid Constantine (Tyson) - she decides to write a book about them, and tell their story to the world.  Rounding out the cast, we have Hilly Holbrook (Howard) and her housemaid Minny Jackson (Spencer).  Hilly is just about the most racist person you've ever met, and she frames more than one housekeeper for theft, just so she could get rid of them.  She even drafted a proposal that would require homes with "colored help" to have separate bathroom installed, bringing the Jim Crow laws into the home.  Minny, who used to work for Hilly until she was fired (and takes some disgusting revenge), is loud, brash and takes no guff from anyone.  And that's trouble for a black housemaid in Mississippi in the '60s.  But a young outcast girl named Cecilia (Chastain) - who married into money - hires Minny, and is completely naive as to how proper white Southern girls are supposed to treat "the help."

There's a lot going on in this movie, but to make a long story short: Aibileen and Minny are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore.  They (reluctantly) agree to help Skeeter write her book, knowing that it could cost them their jobs, and even their lives, if they were found out.

This film touches on a lot of important issues about how whites treated blacks in the post-Civil War South.  The status quo of "seperate but equal" was maintained through fear.  Those who tried to change it were dealt with violently (such as the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama).  But The Help merely touches on the broader issue of the Civil Rights movement - it's simply a backdrop behind which the main story takes place.  The closest any of the character come to getting involved is agreeing to participate in Skeeter's tell-all book (which is published anonymously).  There is a mention made of the Medgar Evers assassination, but that's about as far as it goes.  This film is character-driven, and so that's where the focus remains, which is, in this case at least, the right thing to do.  We've invested so much time and attention to the characters that to shift focus would be confusing.

So now let's focus on what divided the audience.  To those in the "wonderful drama" camp, I would have to say I agree.  I was reminded of the works of Douglas Sirk - particularly Imitation of Life.  It is a film that takes us on an emotional roller coaster; it's dark, funny, serious, and light all at different times.  But it never makes fun of its subject.  That is treated with the utmost respect.

To those in the "negative stereotype" camp: I think you're overreacting.  Yes, Aibileen has times when she speaks like Mammy from Gone With the Wind, but she is an uneducated black housemaid living in Mississippi in the 1960's.  How would you expect her to talk?  Actually, how she speaks is far less important than what she says.  While it may bring to mind some painful memories, Aibileen's affirmation to the toddler she watches over - "You is kind. You is smart. You is important" - is so much more touching the way Viola Davis delivers the line than if it were "cleaned up" by the P.C. police.  And if you're concentrating this much on how the characters speak, I think you've missed the point of this movie entirely.

Needless to say, this film is one that people are going to talk about for years to come.  But those who demonize it as if it were Birth of a Nation should take a closer look at it.  It is the story of a group of women who finally get a voice, and who finally get to tell their story at a time when it most needed to be told.