I dragged my feet in seeing this movie for over 6 months. I'm not exactly sure why that is, as I love me some Voila Davis and enjoy Emma Stone muchly. A 4+ hour bus ride to New York City provided the opportunity for me to see the movie, so I took it… and was very glad I did.
Almost everything about this movie was strong. Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain have already received Golden Globe nominations for their performances, all absolutely well deserved (with a victory for Spencer). The performances from Emma Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard are also lovely, rounding out the great cast. There are some problems with the storytelling in the film (who's story is being told?), but that's minor in the grand scope of it all. To use a pop culture cliché to describe the film, The Help is simply a "winning" film.
Is The Help a perfect movie? No, it's not. Is it historically accurate? I've heard criticisms that it's not. Is it the best written/directed/acted film of the year? Probably not on all counts. But what the film is is a very strong feel good movie, which doesn't happen all that often. Feel good movies are usually sappy, slight things… neither of which could describe The Help. This is a film who's name will be heard as Oscar time, one way or anothe.
