The Help

We can get so hung up on social justice and finding things to be offended by that we completely miss what good there is out there and the messages we can learn from something. When The Help hit movie theaters in the summer of 2011, most reviews were positive on its message about how people treated African American servants in the years surrounding the Civil Rights movement. It opened people’s eyes to the way people were treated in the recent past and how people can blind themselves to their own racism because they don’t want to see themselves as being that way.

A small but vocal minority, though, felt that the way this story was told was problematic, though. These Black characters, mostly women, have their stories told with the assistance of a White woman. To this minority, that made it seem like a White Savior plot, lessoning the plight of the Black women. This has led to a growing negative opinion of the film as a whole, even causing many in the cast to apologize for it. It has tarnished the reputation of The Help and made some people vocally denounce the film as tone-deaf, dismissing it outright rather than recognizing the message that is in there. 

The Help is based on the Kathryn Stockett novel published in the winter of 2009. A year later, the rights were sold to DreamWorks Pictures, and it was on the fast track to becoming a motion picture. Much of the filming took place in Mississippi, where the film was based. Afterwards, it had its premiere in the Jackson, Mississippi suburb of Madison, where many people from the area had memories of the very things they were seeing on screen. A lot had changed in the area since the 1960s, but the memories remain. 

The film tells the story of a number of Black women serving as domestic workers in the Jackson, Mississippi area. The two we focus on the most are Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer). Aibileen works for socialite Elizabeth Leefolt (Ahna O’Reilly), taking care of her daughter, two-year-old Mae Mobley, who is emotionally neglected in part due to Elizabeth’s postpartum depression. Aibileen also takes care of all the household chores, the shopping, and just about anything else the family needs. 

Minny works for Mrs. Walters (Sissy Spacek) and her manipulative daughter Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), who leads the women’s socialite group. During a tornado, Minny is forced to use the indoor bathroom, which Hilly uses as an excuse to fire her. Minny, in turn, gets her own form of revenge on the woman in a particularly gross manner that I will not repeat here. Hilly, humiliated, puts out the word, ensuring that Minny will not be able to find work again. 

Celia Rae Foote (Jessica Chastain), a pregnant housewife who is ostracized by the socialites for getting pregnant and marrying the man Hilly was in love with, is seeking a maid for her massive house in Madison. She hires Minny without telling her husband, ashamed that she cannot cook well on her own and wanting to convince him that she can. When she has a miscarriage, it is revealed that this is not the first time this has happened, and she fears losing him because he desperately wants a family. 

Meanwhile, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone) has just returned from college and wants to be a writer. After hearing that her old housekeeper has supposedly quit after nearly thirty years, Skeeter is determined to not only find out what really happened but also write about something she has started observing since she got back home: the various injustices heaped on the Black workers by the White people that pay them. This is just barely better than the days of slavery, and Skeeter sees a chance to not only get their stories out there but advance her career in the process.

The primary complaint I hear all the time about this film is that it portrays the Black women as needing a White woman to make a positive difference in their lives. This can be seen in Skeeter specifically but also, to a lesser degree, with Celia. There is some truth to this complaint, but it is addressed within the film, too, when Aibileen and Minny are just starting to open up about the things they have been through. Skeeter feels for these women and has altruistic intent, but she also is seeing an opportunity to benefit herself, too. This is more complicated than simply a White woman saving the Black women. 

Celia’s story is the more interesting one, because while she has motives of her own, too, they are born more from her own insecurities than a desire to advance her career. Her story is sad and full of pain. At first, we see her as a bit of a comedic character, ostracized by the other women, unable to cook well and hiring Minny to come in and cook and clean, but needing her to be gone before four so that Celia’s husband stays unaware of Minny. This sudden ability to cook good Southern food wouldn’t fool anyone, and it makes for a humorous image in our minds about how he could be being fooled by all this. But this turns dark quickly when Celia has a miscarriage and is found on the bathroom floor covered in blood. Then it is revealed that she has had three miscarriages and fears that she will never carry a baby to term. This is the real reason that she needs Minny. She fears that if she cannot cook and cannot bear children, her husband will leave her. 

Celia is the only one of the young women, not including Skeeter, of course, that treats the Black women with respect and dignity. Minny doesn’t know how to react to that, at first, taken aback when Celia chooses to sit with her at her own table and share meals. She also shows concern and comforts Minny when Minny shows up with signs of abuse. Later, when Celia’s husband shows up early to confront Minny and admit he’s known all along about her, he, too, is respectful and treats her like an equal, inviting her to the dining room table and even pulling her chair out for her. It’s clear by her reaction that Minny has never been treated with such dignity before. 

After a brutal arrest of one of the maids over a matter of theft, several more women decide it is time to speak up about their experiences working for the White women of Jackson. Skeeter chronicles all their stories, adds her own after finally getting the truth about her own former housemaid from her mother, and gets the book, titled The Help by Anonymous, published. The book becomes a sensation, selling many copies and getting Skeeter a job offer in New York City. Celia, freed from the stress of her perceived failures, is able to carry a child to full term and has learned how to be an excellent cook from Minny, too. Aibileen, however, is fired from her job and accused of stealing by Hilly, who has used her influence over Elizabeth to convince her to terminate Aibileen’s employment. Aibileen has raised many children in the course of her years as a maid, vows that this will be the last one.

This ending as a whole comes close to being too Hollywood. If it weren’t for the final scene with Aibileen, forced out of her job and leaving behind the innocent little girl, Mae, this film would have wrapped up every story too neatly. This final scene emphasizes that not everything ends happily when the credits start to roll. Mae, at two years old, feels like she is undesired by her mother and sees Aibileen as more of a mother figure than her real mom. Aibileen feels the same way about her and it tears them both up to be forced to part like that. It is uncertain where this will go once the film ends, leaving the only really open-ending to this picture. It also points out that children learn racism from their parents and are not born feeling that way. As Aibileen leaves the house for the last time, little Mae watches from the window, tears pouring down her little face. There is a genuine love between those two that knows no skin color. 

I lived in the Jackson, Mississippi area for several months in the mid-1990s, and there was still this attitude between the races present back then. Laws have been passed, and equality rights are in place, yet there were still businesses out there that were segregated at that time, and there was a clear divide in the minds of the people that no laws could overcome. It was frustrating to see coming from someone like me who was raised in the North, but it was something these people were taught generation after generation, and those scars were still present. This film reminded me of my time down South and how much people still think along these lines. 

The Help has a good message to it. Sometimes that message gets a little too preachy at times, and it isn’t always deftly handled, but it is still a powerful one. Whenever I hear Emma Stone or Viola Davis apologizing for this movie, it feels more like they are trying to appease the naysayers rather than how they really feel about this film. Only they know for sure, but their comments feel like a reaction to the controversies rather than from the heart. I feel like I would rather watch a movie that takes a big swing and comes up a little short than one that tries to appease everyone and ends up standing for nothing at all. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, and Michael Barnathan

Best Actress: Viola Davis

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer (won)

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain

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Release Date: August 10, 2011

Running Time: 146 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Starring: Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Octavia Spencer, and Emma Stone

Directed by: Tate Taylor