介绍:
There is nothing particularly exciting about Tate Taylor's movie 'The Help." Although it involves the topic of racism, the conflicts are downplayed, for reasons we'll talk about later. Somehow the movie feels like a peaceful river that has flowed quietly through an undisturbed meadow for centuries. But in reality it is a lengthy 137 minutes—precisely why you'd better see it when you are in the right mood.
For those women captured in the original novel of the same name by Kathryn Stockett, life wasn't peaceful at all. Back in the 1960s in Mississippi, black women served as maids for white families. They cooked, cleaned and looked after white babies. In return, they were paid next to nothing and remained "separate but equal." If they used their bosses' bathroom, they got fired. If they asked for civil rights, they risked their lives.
Many viewers may deem "The Help" a movie about racial discrimination, but I'm convinced there is more. Certainly, the story goes to considerable length to depict the unfair treatment the black women were subject to, but it only serves to prove how little education plus an empty mind can be a dangerous thing. Most of the white women in the movie, represented by Bryce Dallas Howard's character Hilly Holbrook, are prejudiced against the black maids as well as girls with working-class origins. They seem to say, "Excuse me, if you are not white middle class, you don't belong to our club."
There are exceptions, people free from prejudice. The character Skeeter, played by Emma Stone, grew up under the care of a black maid and was determined to be an independent working woman. As a "homemaker hints" columnist for the local newspaper, she constantly needs help from maids Aibileen and Minny. In the process, she learns more about the injustices they have been made to suffer and decides to help them in return by writing about their stories. What she does is illegal at the time, but she insists on helping the maids in her own way. And the maids eventually identify with her cause and help her finish a book she is writing.
So that brings us to the keywords of this story: women and help. As women, the maids do not take drastic measures to deal with their misfortune. Instead, they endure and hold on to each other. That explains why hardly any serious conflict takes place in the movie. Even historical events such as an assassination are quietly placed on the back burner as Skeeter's book slowly takes shape. There have been numerous movies on racial issues, but "The Help" certainly takes a very different approach.
Viola Davis's character, the maid Aibileen, tends to be passive about all the injustices she has suffered during her life, but her unrelenting kindness moves the audience to tears. On the other hand, Octavia Spencer as the fighter maid Minny attracts plenty of laughter and admiration. Compared to them, the character Skeeter appears much weaker, while the prejudiced ones simply fade into stereotypes.
Perhaps when you are indeed in the right mood, 'The Help" will be a good way to pass an lazy afternoon, and maybe you'll learn something about the tender power of women. On a scale from one to ten, I give "The Help" a seven.
