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Racial Lines Meshed by The Help
Tate Taylor makes her Directorial Debut
In “The Help”, we are taken back to the early 1960s to Jackson, Mississippi, which at the time was heavily characterized by racial prejudice and tension between Caucasians and African Americans. Inspired after the book, this film transcends an accurate reality of relations between these two groups through the eyes of the African American “help” and her employers, and the contrast between the role of the help in perspective of the employers and Caucasian children they were responsible for raising. With a dynamic and versatile cast ranging from comedy princess Emma Stone, to stage queen and Tony Award winning actress Viola Davis, this movie efficaciously communicates how far this country has come since the days of the Jim Crow law struggles, and the journey it is still actively embarking on with the goal of forever blurring the lines between race, and status.
Emma Stone stars as Skeeter, who upon arriving back home from college discovers that the maid who raised her is no longer with her family, whom told her that her “help” Constantine, had moved back home to be with her family. Unsatisfied with the explanation she received and the fact that no one is willing to discuss Constantine, coupled with her experience with her friends during their weekly bridge club meeting, where, Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) expresses that all homes should have separate bathrooms for their colored helps, she releases the difference in manner in which the two races are treated. With primary help from three maids from within the families of her circle of friends, Skeeter resolves to reveal the behind the manner in which colored people are treated, from the perspective of the “help”. In a town where serving as a maid was one of the only job opportunities for colored women, these three maids are faced with the choice of revealing the truth, or accepting their predicament in order to keep their jobs.
With the alternate characters of each made and their employers, this film intertwines truth, comedy, and soul-filled drama, making for a brilliant watch, and a telling plot. This film opens in theaters on Wednesday, August 10th.