The Help: Movie Review

Last night, a gaggle of fellow librarians (and one non-librarian roommate) and I went off to see The Help, which is of course based on Kathryn Stockett's novel of the same name.  We had all read (or in Jamie, Anna and my case, listened to it on a particular very long car ride to Washington, D.C.) the book and were interested to see how it would be translated into a movie.

I will say that overall I was quite happy.  I thought the essence of the book was there on the screen.  The Help is a long book, so of course the movie got distilled down to the main plot: Skeeter trying to get the maids of Jackson to give her interviews so she can write her book.  We saw some of the side plots, like Skeeter's relationship with Stuart, and Hilly's bathroom initiative, but they weren't as fleshed out.

The casting was excellent.  When I first heard Emma Stone was going to play Skeeter, my initial reaction was, "Oh no!  All wrong!"  But it turns out I really liked her in the role, and all the other characters were well cast too, especially Minny and Aibileen.  Aibileen was played by Viola Davis and Minny was played by Octavia Spencer and they were both just perfect.  Spencer especially I just loved as Minny.  She gave her all her spunk and humor from the book and she was hysterical.

The reaction from the audience last night was very positive as well, and I haven't been to a whole lot of movies where you can really tell how the audience was feeling.  For whatever reason, there was a very vocal audience last night.  Especially in terms of gasping.  There was a whole lot of audible gasping going on!  I started laughing every time it happened.  Clearly some people had NOT read the books.  There was also plenty of heartfelt laughter and a good bit of sniffling.

Spoilers ahead for those you haven't read the book and/or seen the movie.

The Help: The Movie

You might remember back in July when Arianna wrote a review of the audiobook The Help by Kathryn Stockett. If you need a refresher, it was AWESOME! If you haven't read it, do it now. As in stop reading this posting and get the book and read. Don't skip over anything, don't scan it, read it completely through. Then come back.

Anyways, they're making a movie out of it (because Hollywood can't leave well enough alone), and generally I'm a bit eh with some of the actors they've chosen. I think I'm mostly Debbie-downer about it because of Emma Stone. I don't know what it is, but I just don't picture her as Skeeter Phelan. Emma Stone's so pretty and seemingly charming. Just not what I pictured, but I guess that's why she's paid the big bucks to convince me and I'm just a lowly librarian making judgment calls on a blog. And let's be perfectly honest, are my objections going to stop me from seeing it? Probably not.

The movie comes out Aug. 12, 2011.