Got out to see The Help yesterday – and it is an amazing movie. I haven’t read the book, but pals Tina McCulloch and Victoria Shepherd and I were talking about the movie when we hung out at Into the Woods on Friday night – and I hear it’s a good adaptation.
The Help has a stand-out cast of women, featuring Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Allison Janney, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone and Cicely Tyson. Set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 60s, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Stone) sets out on a risky writing project, interviewing the town’s housemaids – all black women who not only do all the housekeeping, cooking and child care for their employers (for below minimum wage), but aren’t allowed to use the washrooms in the homes where they work. Maids Aibileen Clark (Davis) and Minny Jackson (Spencer) are her first two interview subjects, and more maids join the project, sharing their stories (good and bad) in secret with Skeeter, since questioning the rules of engagement between blacks and whites was socially suspect, and bringing up issues of equality was against the law. Meanwhile, Skeeter has her own personal take on the situation, having been raised by her family’s maid Constantine (Tyson) and returning home to find her beloved caregiver gone – and an unconvincing story as to why she left.
Go see this movie. It’s touching, funny – and the courage of these women and the power of words are inspiring. Check out the trailer:
p.s. – Just picked up the book during my lunch break. Some vacation reading for when I go to St. John’s next week.
life with more cowbell 
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