The Help (Emma Stone)

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It’s eleven years since we saw the film ‘The Help’, which was based on the excellent novel of the same name by Kathryn Stockett. I recalled most of the plot - it’s a very powerful, thought-provoking one - but had forgotten most of the details. We decided to watch it last night despite it being quite a long film by today’s standards: it’s almost two and a half hours long. 

Although we knew it was set in the 1960s, it still felt shocking to us that racial segregation was still legal - and popular with white people - in Mississippi. It all takes place in a small town, where there are a lot of socialite white women who all have black ‘maids’ - known collectively as ‘the help’. 

We get to know just a few of the households concerned. Aibileen (Viola Davies) works for a woman called Elizabeth (Ahna O’Reilly), looking after her young daughter Mae Mobley, who must be about two and a half or three. Elizabeth had post-natal depression and does almost nothing for her daughter, who adores ‘Aibie’. Apparently Mae Mobley, who is delightful, was played by identical twins. 

I wondered, after watching the film, just how they were persuaded to play this child who is neglected by her mother. Mae Mobley has some quite poignant scenes. But I could not find out any details. 

Elizabeth’s friend Hillie (Bryce Dallas Howard) is quite rude to her maids, and also to her mother’s maid Minnie (Octavia Spencer). Minnie is very outspoken and has lost several jobs as a result. But she gets on rather well with Hillie’s mother Mrs Walters. She has a cameo role played by Sissy Spacek, and it introduces some lighter moments, even humour in the story. 

The main character, however, is Skeeter (Emma Stone). She’s just finished a degree, and wants to be a writer. She’s very worried when she discovers that the maid who brought her up (Constantine) has disappeared, and nobody will explain what happened. And she decides that she should write accounts of what goes on in the village, from the perspective of the maids. 

Even when Skeeter promises complete anonymity, none of the maids is interested at first; it’s too dangerous for them. Black people are truly considered inferior in this community - it’s made clear in the rudeness used by some of the white people, and the subservient roles they have to take. There’s an ongoing thread about the need for separate toilet facilities, and one maid is fired for using her employer’s bathroom. 

But after a quite distressing scene when one of the maids is arrested, many of them come forward and agree to tell their stories. It’s encouraging that a few of them are positive, demonstrating compassion and kindness from their employers. But others tell of difficult lives, of not being allowed to feel like legitimate people, of having to give way, all the time, to white people and miss many of their privileges.

While the novel is fiction, it’s based on a society that really did exist with these restrictions and rules as recently as the 1960s. Churches, schools, cinemas and even buses required separate white and ‘coloured’  apparently racial segregation in Mississippi wasn’t abolished until the early 1970s. 

I did have a slight problem with the strong southern accents at the start of the film, and a couple of times during it when people were speaking rapidly. But it didn't detract at all from the story, and I don't think it really mattered. 

We thought the acting exceptional, particularly the three main characters, Skeeter, Aibileen and Minnie. There are a lot of threads in this story, including domestic violence from one of the black husbands - it’s not just the white people who are unkind or unpleasant. And some of the white people (such as Skeeter) are passionate about trying to make a difference. Yet she manages to come across as somewhat naive, too, and her initial attempts to do something are seen as condescending. 

It’s very thought-provoking; it’s also beautifully made with a pace that kept us watching without any sense that it was overlong. The rating of 12A is about right, I think; there’s nothing overtly sexual but there are some mildly gory scenes and a lot that’s disturbing, really not suitable for younger children. And there are a few instances of bad or ‘strong’ language, including a very unpleasant derogatory racial word used several times. 

But with that proviso, I would recommend this very highly. 

There are a couple of deleted scenes as 'extra' features, introduced by the director, which we watched afterwards. 

Review copyright 2026 Sue's DVD Reviews