Movie Review: The Help

This will be my first film review ever and I hope you all like it. So the movie in question is the 'The Help' that chronicles the lives of black maids working in white households in Jackson Miss. during the 1960s. For all the people out there who see this movie as another 'white person comes along to save the oppressed blacks' type of movie- it isn't. The young college graduate, a white woman by the name of Skeeter played brilliantly by Emma Stone (<3) simply acts as the means to the end. It is the black housemaids of Jackson that make the movie their own.

The movie portrays rather accurately the rich high society housewives who are the antagonists and for those of you who might get offended by this- don't watch the movie! go home, do whatever but this is how it was and no matter how much certain people out there will deny it, this is the gut wrenching truth. One story that particularly stuck out (this is just one spoiler I'll give out) was the death of Aibeleen's (played by Viola Davis!) son, how he was badly injured on the job and the white foreman simply dumped him on the back of his truck drove him to the black hospital and blew one honk and left him there, I was almost in tears after seeing that and felt sick. But what really gets to you, is the courage these women require to write a book that tell their side of the story because it was never written before. I want to tell everyone to go watch it, go back to the South of the 1960s, and relive what we put our fellow human beings through.

What I'm taking back with me from the movie:

The incident that drives the movie into motion, is Hilly Hollybrook's suggestion to pass a law that requires every white home to have a separate toilet built for the help. Now this was seen as something that touched a nerve for a lot of people but when I thought about it, this movie reflected a lot the kind of lives upper middle class children experience here in India. I had a maid who brought me up, my father was in the Navy and he and my mom were out almost everyday, either attending cocktail morning or brunches or some other formal events. I honestly remember very little of them from that time but I do remember my 'aama'- its what I called the woman who helped around my house and played a big role in my childhood. She took me to the park, made sure I ate my meals, told me stories, watched TV with me and put me to bed. And yes we had a separate toilet for her. Her family occupied the servants quarters adjacent to our house and I saw her everyday from when I was 3 till I was six. Watching this movie, reminded me of her so much and I started missing this person whom I hadn't seen or thought about in the longest time and it killed me that I couldn't remember her face or that I didn't know where she was or how she was doing. But I remember fleeting moments from back then, moments that I'll keep with me, like when I insisted that I wanted a particular flower and she got it for me and got into trouble with the owner of the garden- I still feel guilty about that- or how she always bought me gumballs after picking me up from school.

I want people to watch this movie and realize the kind of important roles these women play in your childhood and someday in your children's childhood. I know I'm gonna try and make my whole family watch it.