Help [Blu-ray] [2011] [US Import]

I just got so angry for the 'help' in this film. A real expose of the Deep South and America's shameful treatment even into what we would consider an enlightened era the 60's. Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis are truly the reason this film is so successful as they hold up a mirror to a disgraceful history with passion, humour and empathy. Great story of resilience and courage and certainly made me think. One word 'Pie'...keep that word in your mind when you watch this fabulous film.

excellent, inspiring, tearful - eye opening!

Love the plot and the characters are so perfectly cast and acted out. The layering of the movie makes it one I want to watch over and over! Ending was a tad sad but still really good..

As there are 700 reviews on here already I don’t intend to over-elaborate about the plot.I saw the film when it came out in 2011 and I was sufficiently impressed to want to view it again on DVD.I always enjoy films about the ‘Deep South’ as I love its countryside, antebellum architecture and the whole history of that period - even if some of it is very distasteful, but then, so are large parts of our ‘ British Empire,’ but it is history nonetheless.The filming around Mississippi is just lovely, aided of course by the fact that the director, Tate Taylor,(also Get on Up / James Brown fame) comes from that particular state. All the filming was done there, at Jackson, Clarksdale & Greenwood. You can’t get more authentic than that!I really enjoyed this film, though on the second viewing, I did find it a little overly sentimental, which didn’t hit me the first time around – can’t really explain that one!The film is not trying to be another ‘12 Years a Slave’ or ‘Django,’ or even a ‘Roots and so shouldn’t be judged as such.’I found the all-round acting first class, though quite how Brice Dallas Howard - the despicable Hilly Holbrook, didn’t get an AA nom’ for ‘best supporting actress’ as well, is quite beyond me. The ‘cast’ did win ‘Best Ensemble’ from several award groups which does make me feel somewhat better.This is an excellent watch IMHO - the critics and public thought so too. It turned in a profit of nearly 200 million $ and was nominated for over 100 awards, winning 40.

After graduating from college, Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan (Emma Stone) returns to her home town of Jackson, Mississippi and is shocked to find that Constantine the black maid for worked for her family for many years and practically raised her, has left without saying goodbye.Whereas the rest of her friends went to college to find husbands, Skeeter remains single and completes a degree in journalism. In order to pursue her ambition to become a writer she gets a job writing a domestic column for a local newspaper. In order to find material to include she sets about taking tips from the black maids who work in the town (known as 'the help').Prompted both by her conversations with the help and her bewilderment as to Constantine's departure, Skeeter begins to notice the poor treatment and racist behaviour white families show towards the black maids they employ. Although the Black Civil Rights Movement is growing, racism and racial segregation remain rife and unchallenged in Jackson. Amongst the worst offenders is her best friend Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), who under the false pretence that black people carry different diseases to white, has put a proposal to the governor that separate toilets for 'the help' should be provided in every household. This takes Skeeter in a whole new direction; to write a book from the perspective of the help exposing how badly they are treated by the white families they work for. Her first informant is a maid named Aibileen (Viola Davis) who works for her friend Elizabeth (and serves as the film's narrator). Aibileen is later joined by fellow maid Minny (Octavia Spencer). Minny is Hilly's former maid who was fired for using the indoor toilet and not going into hurricane weather to use the 'help's toilet outside.I will not reveal the rest of the story. Needless to say The Help is one the most powerful films I have seen for a long time. Before I watched it I had only a limited knowledge and appreciation of the extent of the civil and institutional racism which was commonplace in the USA in the mid 20th Century. Today the status of black citizens in the USA has rocketed, the election of Barrack O Bama in 2008 being a strong example. However the legacy of their mistreatment continues to blight their lives. Films including The Help serve to illustrate how such attitudes can be diluted but remain ingrained within American society.

Great film

Superub writing and acting. Love it. Keep re- watching the shorts of FB!

Good film, great price and arrived quickly.