The Help

Where to begin? Such a good movie. 

Incidentally, I don't like Emma Stone (no, I've never seen her in anything...heh) and I love Bryce Dallas Howard, so it was strange having the one I don't like be the heroine and the one I do like being the terrible human being of the movie. But Emma Stone pulled off the pulled off the pretty-in-a-slightly-socially-unacceptable-way thing well, and Bryce Dallas Howard was wicked and complicated and busy-body extraordinaire. 

It was just a gorgeous movie--the colors, the clothing, the drama, the Coca-Cola bottles, the shiny red nail polish, the fried chicken.

It's based off of a recent best-selling novel, set in the early 1960's. Racism is alive and well in Mississipi at the during the bloom of the Civil Rights movement. 

"Skeeter" Phelan, urged to write something honest and unique about "what bothers her that , notices the strange inconsistencies of the behavior of the rich white women toward their black hired help. Their servants feed, clothe, and care for their children nearly all day, yet they don't let them read the same books or use the same bathrooms. 

She ends up interviewing "the help", and begins to see the world through their eyes. 

So many vibrant characters to love or hate or be disgusted by or cry with.

I don't know what all it was--the fact that I was tired and unstable walking into the theater, or that pretty much everything about the movie made me emotional. The racism, the lost son, the broken friendships, the loser guy who dumped her because she stood up for something, the realistic relationship between the two women who'd been friends for years and years and had grown heavy and wise and world-weary alongside each other. 

But by the end, I was sobbing. Big time. Like, casting about for tissues, burying my face in my knees to keep from making a huge racket, and finally just like clamping my hands over my mouth and giving myself over to the wreckage as the end credits rolled and people started to leave.

Now I'm reading the book, which is incredible, and I'm sure will result in yet another emotional breakdown. 

Go and see it. 

My only caution--there's definitely a liberal sprinkling of colorful language, but much more contextually appropriate than in most movies. ; )

If you've seen it, what did you think? 

P.S. Jenn rocks (well, for a lot of reasons but one of them being) because she told me to watch it when I asked her if it was good. :)