The Help

Back when “America was great” an educated woman starts her career as a book writer doing  a book about the black maids that work in the small town she lives in.
Viola Davis is a great actress and she’s spectacular in this. Just so unafraid to get into it and get her hands dirty to produce the best performance. No wonder she was nominated for an Oscar. No disrespect to the outstanding performance of Octavia Spencer, who won the Oscar for her role. Although I’m sure that scene where she makes her ex-boss eat her shit (via a chocolate pie) helped a lot. I don’t know any working woman period who does not love that scene.
Spencer’s character showed just how inhuman black folks were treated back then (Hence why she made her ex-boss eat her shit)
Emma Stone’s  character, Skeeter is a white woman who was basically raised by a colored woman (Played by Cicely Tyson) who was a maid to her family. It’s a situation that is common in Jacksonville Mississippi at the time. Only difference is the love this woman gave Skeeter she kept it close to her heart and when she grew up that love inspired her to write a book that told people how hard it was for them to be treated as part of the family by the children they care for, but being treated like what seemed to constitute a servant back in the day by most who employ them. One Maid told her story to Skeeter who explained though she was getting a pay check, she was treated like she was the property of the home she was tending to.
It’s really fucked up how  these white housewives are from a time and a place where blacks were less than people to them. Bryce Dallas Howard was as good as a villain as Vader or Loki. Just nasty and mean. Made you hate her. So good.
One of the odd things about movies like The Help was learning something dark I did not know about black history. Just the little things like the extra bathroom for the colored help. There was a lot of things I could have focused on that would make me upset, but this is the one that I did not know about prior to the movie. It’s awkward watching these housewives talking about how important it is to have a separate bathroom for the colored help so that you don’t catch the same type of diseases that  negroes have (Right in front of the help no less). Watching The help used the bathroom was even worse as it was nothing but a gloried out house like they had back in the wild west or something. Very demeaning, but it is this awkwardness that makes the movie so important.