Book to Movie: The Help

Book to Movie Review: YAY! I finally got to go and see The Helpon Sunday with my sister. I've been wanting to see it since it's release but life got in the way. I will simply say this and then add more...I LOVED it. I laughed when I was supposed to laugh, I cried when I was supposed to cry (ok, maybe a few more than actually necessary) and I thought that overall the director did an excellent job of retaining the spirit of the book.

For those us who've read the book, it an excellent adapatation. For those who didn't read the book, the movie captures all the essentials of the book. If you haven't read the book, go and get it now because there are nuances in the novel that aren't in the movie.

I love Emma Stone so I knew that I would simply adore her as Skeeter and I did. Viola Davis was marvelous as Abileen; Octavia Spencer had all the gumption that Minny needed to shine on the screen and Jessica Chastain (Who IS she?) knocked me off my seat as Ceclia Foote. For me, she stole the movie. Her performance was understated and golden as the outsider in Jackson. She wants so desperately to fit in and tries so hard. It takes a friendship with Minny for her to realize that she doesn't need those stuck up snobs to be happy.

Let's talk about Bryce Dallas Howard's portrayal of Hilly Hollbrook. I loathed her in the book and often wondered how someone didn't slap her but in the movie Ms. Howard made her dreadful. There was nothing, absolutely nothing redeemable about her character. She is a hateful woman. She is miserable with her life and therefore makes everyone around her miserable. She is fearful of change and of progress. For me she always embodied the thoughts of that time period and the shortsightedness of some people.

Does the movie or the book address all the problems of that era? Of course not, nothing can encaputulate all things. What it does is give a voice to people who didn't have one before.

The one thing that struck me with the book and then again with the movie is how black women were allowed to raise white children, which is a pretty important task, cook and clean but were not given the respect in other areas of the home. This has always seemed a bit of an oxymoron to me and I suppose it always will.

I could go on and on about the performances from Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney, Cicely Tyson but I really think they speak for themselves. I was worried about the casting in the movie but they did a pitch perfect job in the end and I wouldn't change it at all.

Book to Movie Final Take: 4.75/5

Julie's Review: The Help

Summary: What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel (and maiden publication of Amy Einhorn's new imprint) set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it. ~amazon.com

Review: The Help will go in my "Why didn't I read this sooner?" category. I've never read anything like this book and I don't think I probably ever will again. The novel is unique, inspiring, and heart-wrenching. This is definitely a book I will be picking up again at some point in the future. It will also be mandatory reading for my daughter when she's grown.

The story is told from 3 different points of view: Miss Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. Each of these characters have their own rich voices, that makes the story come alive. I can't say that I had a favorite character out of the 3 of them, they were all so different, individual and distinct. Each has had different experiences but those different experiences bring them together in ways that no one in the mid 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi could fathom.

There are some humorous points in the book along with the poignant. There are some fantastic secondary characters in the book. My favorite was Miss Celia. I could so picture her in my head and often felt sorry for her. Of course there's the character that you just can't stand and can't wait until she gets her just desserts and The Help definitely has one of these.

Ultimately these women are brave. Each of them risking their lives and the lives of their loved ones to create change. Race relations is the forefront of this book but in the end it's about women. Our relationships and how we are all similar even if we don't realize it.

I don't often read the afterword by authors but I found Ms. Stockett's to be extremely raw and moving. It brought a whole new element of realism to the book for me.

So, run don't walk to your favorite bookstore and buy this book. I don't think you'll regret it.

Final Take: 5/5

Related Links: Lisa's Review

Lisa's Review: The Help

Summary:
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

Review:
Well before I got one third of the way through this book, I knew that it would get a rating of 5 from me, unless of course the second half of the book just went horribly wrong. Somehow I just didn't see that happening.

I was skeptical that a white author would truly be able to write in the voice of a black woman in 1960s Mississippi, but write she did and not just one woman but two. Aibileen and Minny are distinctly different women, both funny, smart, sad and ultimately brave. Skeeter was just also a joy to get to know. She's a modern woman torn between expectations and hoping for change until the opportunity presents itself. She teams up with the Aibileen and Minny to work on a project that is dangerous for the three of them. Segregation is still rampant and Mississippi is fighting the inevitable changes.

Race relations takes center stage in the novel. Ms. Stockett did an excellent job of treating the subject with careful respect by combining fact with fiction, pointing out injustices and the irony of it all without condemning either race. Really well done. My only disappointment - the Terrible Awful just wasn't enough of a price for Hilly to pay, evil woman. I shudder to think that people like her existed and likely still do.

Read this book...You will love it.

Final Take: 5/5