The Help

"You is kind. You is smart. You is Important."


My wife signed up for Audible so she could listen to books for her book club. She put on the Hunger Games series and for Mother's Day I got The Help for her. My commute is about 2-3 hours each day so I listen to them too. I finished listening to the Help a few months ago. It was a fantastic book. I was very excited to see the movie. I know movies are never as good as the book. You can never fit the detail of a 12 hour book into a 2 hour movie. So, keeping that in mind Heather and I went with our friends, the Ainsworths, on a double date.

The Help is a story about a Lady name Skeeter who lives in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's. Jackson was one of the strongest enforcers of the Jim Crow laws. Skeeter wants to be a writer and she end up talking to a Mrs. Stein about making a book about being a black woman in Jackson in the 60's. She wants to write this book from the view of the help. This was a bi no-no at the time. Anyone who spoke out for anything close to equal rights was shunned or much worse.

The characters are fantastic. Skeeter is played by Emma Stone. I expect we'll see her in a dozen movies in the next two years. The ladies are played by Olivia Davis and Octavia Spencer. The both are fantastic. It has the usual race film points that make you angry, but also has the parts that make you laugh pretty hard.

As usual the books are more informative and detailed, but this film gets the point across. It is a great starting point before you jump into the book.

7.3 out of 10