The Help (film)
Encyclopedia
The Help is a 2011 comedy-drama
film adaptation
of Kathryn Stockett
's novel of the same name
. The film is about a young white woman, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, and her relationship with two black maids during Civil Rights era America in the early 1960s. Skeeter is a journalist who decides to write a controversial book from the point of view of the maids (known as the Help), exposing the racism
they are faced with as they work for white families.
The film takes place in Jackson
, Mississippi
, and stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis
, Octavia Spencer
, Bryce Dallas Howard
, Jessica Chastain
, Sissy Spacek
, Mike Vogel
, Mary Steenburgen
, and Allison Janney
. The Help opened to positive reviews and became a box office success with gross of $198.8 million against its budget of $25 million.
) is a middle-aged black maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son. Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer
) is another black maid whose outspokenness has gotten her fired many times and built up a reputation for being a difficult employee, but she makes up for this with her phenomenal cooking skills.
Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone) is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating from the University of Mississippi
to find that her beloved childhood maid, Constantine, has quit while she was away. Skeeter is skeptical because she believes Constantine would have written to her.
Unlike her friends, who have all married and are having children, Skeeter is interested in a career as a writer. Her first job is as a "homemaker hints" columnist in the local paper, and she asks Aibileen for her help in answering domestic questions. Skeeter becomes uncomfortable with the attitude her friends have towards their "help", especially Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard
) and her "Home Help Sanitation Initiative", a proposed bill to provide for separate bathrooms for black help because she believes that 'they' [black people] carry different diseases to 'us' [white people]. Amidst the era of discrimination based on color, Skeeter is one of the few who believe otherwise, and she decides to write a book, The Help, based on the lives of the maids who have spent their entire life taking care of white children.
The maids are at first reluctant to talk to Skeeter, because they are afraid that they will lose their jobs or worse. Aibileen is the first to share her stories after she overhears Hilly's initiative and realizes that the children whom she has been raising are growing up to be just like their parents. Her friend, Minny, has just been fired as Hilly's maid and has gone to work for a wealthy social outcast, Celia Foote. Minny initially declines to participate but later agrees to share her stories as well.
Skeeter writes a draft of the story with Minny and Aibileen's stories in it and sends it to Miss Stein, an editor in New York, who thinks there may be some interest in it, but requires at least a dozen more maids' contributions before it can become a viable book. Believing that the book will only be publishable during the Civil Rights movement
, which she likewise believes is a passing fad, Stein advises Skeeter to finish the book soon. No one comes forward until after Medgar Evers
is assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi – with racial tensions running high, the maids realize that Skeeter's book will give them an opportunity for their voices to be heard, and Skeeter suddenly has numerous stories to include. Minny shares one last story with Skeeter and Aibilene, which she calls the "Terrible Awful," to ensure that no one will think that the book was written about Jackson, Mississippi. As revenge for firing her and accusing her of stealing, Minny bakes a chocolate pie and delivers it to Hilly. After Hilly has finished two slices, Minny informs her that she has baked her own feces into the pie. Minny tells Aibilene and Skeeter that by adding that part into the book, Hilly will try to prevent anyone from figuring out that she made her eat human feces and will convince the town that the book must be about some other town.
The book is accepted for publication and is a success, much to the delight of Skeeter and the maids. She shares her royalties with each of the maids who contributed, and is offered a job with a publishing company in New York. Later in the afternoon, Hilly hatches a plan to get rid of Aibileen as her help, by falsely accusing her of stealing silver while arranging it for meetings. As Aibileen tries to convince Hilly and Elizabeth of her innocence, Elizabeth's daughter, Mae Mobley, arrives and jumps on top of her, watching Aibileen being fired. Aibileen renounces Hilly as a godless woman and tells her that she will never have peace if she continues her vindictive ways and leaves her in limbo. Elizabeth is forced to accept the unacceptable firing of Aibileen, and Mae Mobley cries by the window shouting for Aibileen, as the maid leaves to start her own life.
reported that Chris Columbus
, Michael Barnathan
, and Mark Radcliffe would produce a film adaptation of The Help, under their production company 1492 Prods. Brunson Green of Harbinger Productions also co-produced. The film was written and directed by Stockett's childhood friend, Tate Taylor, who optioned film rights to the book before its release.
The first casting news for the production came in March 2010, when it was reported that Emma Stone was attached to play the role of Skeeter Phelan. Other actors were since cast, including Viola Davis
as Aibileen; Bryce Dallas Howard
as Hilly Holbrook, Jackson's snooty town ringleader; Allison Janney
as Charlotte Phelan, Skeeter's mother; and Chris Lowell
as Stuart Whitworth, Skeeter's boyfriend and a senator's son. Leslie Jordan
appears as the editor of the fictional local newspaper, The Jackson Journal. Mike Vogel
plays the character Johnny Foote. Octavia Spencer
portrays Minny. A longtime friend of Stockett and Taylor, Spencer inspired the character of Minny in Stockett's novel and voiced her in the audiobook version.
Filming of The Help began in July 2010 and extended through October. The town of Greenwood, Mississippi
was chosen to portray 1960s-era Jackson, and producer Brunson Green said he had expected to shoot "95 percent" of the movie there. Parts of the film were also shot in the real-life Jackson, as well as in nearby Clarksdale
and Greenville
. One of the few locations that existed in 1963 Jackson, the book and the movie is Jackson landmark Brent's Drugs, which dates to 1946. Other locations that can still be found in Jackson include the New Capitol Building
and the Mayflower Cafe downtown. Scenes set at the Jackson Journal office were shot in Clarksdale at the building which formerly housed the Clarksdale Press Register
for 40 years until April 2010.
The Help was the most significant film production in Mississippi since 2000's O Brother, Where Art Thou?
"Honestly, my heart would be broken if it were set anywhere but Mississippi", Stockett wrote in an e-mail to reporters. In order to convince producers to shoot in Greenwood, Tate Taylor and others had previously come to the town and scouted out locations; at his first meeting with DreamWorks executives, he presented them with a photo album of potential filming spots in the area. The state's tax incentive program for filmmakers was also a key enticement in the decision.
On its opening day (Wednesday, August 10, 2011), The Help topped the box office
with $5.54 million. It then added $4.33 million on Thursday, declining only 21%, for a two-day total to $9.87 million. On its first weekend, The Help grossed $26.0 million, coming in second place behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes. However, during its second weekend, The Help jumped to the number one spot at the box office, beating the previous weekend's number one film (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) as well as all four new nationwide releases (Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, Conan the Barbarian, Fright Night
and One Day
). All this thanks to a decline of only 23%, the smallest among films playing nationwide, to $20.0 million. The Help retained first place in its third weekend, again beating all three new nationwide releases (Colombiana
, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
and Our Idiot Brother) dropping only 27% to $14.5 million. The film crossed the $100 million mark on its 21st day of release, becoming one of only two titles in August 2011 that achieved this. On its fourth weekend (Labor Day
3-day weekend), it became the only 2011 film, and the first film since Inception
, to top the box-office charts for three consecutive weekends. Up just 0.4% to $14.6 million, it out-grossed all new nationwide releases (The Debt, Apollo 18
and Shark Night 3D
). During the 4-day weekend, it was still in first place with a $19.9 million haul, which was the fourth largest gross for a Labor-day weekend. As of September 2011, it is the 7th highest-grossing Drama-Summer film (serious drama that debuted in the summer), according to Box Office Mojo
. Notably, The Help topped the box office for 25 days in a row. This was the longest uninterrupted streak since The Sixth Sense
(35 days), which was also a late summer release, in 1999.
reported that 75% of 188 professional critics gave the film a positive review, with an average critical score of 7/10. The site's consensus stated, "Though arguably guilty of glossing over its racial themes, The Help rises on the strength of its cast -- particularly Viola Davis
, whose performance is powerful enough to carry the film on its own." Metacritic
, a review aggregator which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 62 based on 40 reviews. CinemaScore
polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was an A+ on an A+ to F scale.
Tom Long from The Detroit News
remarked about the film: "Appalling, entertaining, touching and perhaps even a bit healing, The Help is an old-fashioned grand yarn of a film, the sort we rarely get these days." Connie Ogle of The Miami Herald
gave the film three out of four stars and said it "will make you laugh, yes, but it can also break your heart. In the dog days of August moviegoing, that's a powerful recommendation."
More on the mixed side was Karina Longworth of the Village Voice: "We get a fairly typical Hollywood flattening of history, with powerful villains and disenfranchised heroes." Rick Gloen of The Globe and Mail
, giving the film two out of four stars, said: "Typically, this sort of film is an earnest tear-jerker with moments of levity. Instead, what we have here is a raucous rib-tickler with occasional pauses for a little dramatic relief."
Some of the negative reviews criticized the film for its inability to match the book's level of greatness. Chris Hewitt of the St. Paul Pioneer Press
said about the film: "Some adaptations find a fresh, cinematic way to convey a book's spirit but The Help doesn't."
Many critics praised the performances of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Wilson Morales of Blackfilm.com gave the movie 3 out of 4 stars and commented, "With powerful performances given by Viola Davis and scene stealer Octavia Spencer, the film is an emotionally, moving drama that remains highly entertaining." David Edelstein from New York
magazine commented that, "The Help belongs to Viola Davis."
Ida E. Jones, the national director of the Association of Black Women Historians, released an open statement criticizing "The Help" in An Open Statement to the Fans of The Help. The letter stated that "[d]espite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers." The group of scholars accused both the book and the film of insensitive portrayals of African-American vernacular, a nearly uniform depiction of black men as cruel or absent, and a failure to acknowledge the sexual harassment that many black women endured in their white employers’ homes. Jones concluded by saying that "The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women’s lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment."
Roxane Gay of literary web magazine The Rumpus articulated reasons the film might be offensive to African Americans, mentioning the film's use of racial Hollywood stereotypes like the Magical Negro
and Gone With the Wind
s Mammy.
To help promote the movie, TakePart.com hosted a series of three writing contests . Rebecca Lubin, of Mill Valley, CA, who has been a nanny for nearly two decades won the recipe contest. Darcy Pattison’s “11 Ways to Ruin a Photograph” won "The Help" Children's Story Contest with her story about a tenacious young girl who refuses to take a good photograph while her father is away “soldiering.” After being chosen by guest judge and children’s book author Lou Berger, the story was professionally illustrated. The final contest was about "someone who inspired you." Genoveva Islas-Hooker charmed guest judge Doc Hendley (founder of Wine to Water) with her story, A Heroine Named Confidential. A case manager for patients with HIV, Islas-Hooker was consistently inspired by one special individual who never gave up the fight to live.
, and Digital Download on December 6, 2011. The release will be produced in three different physical packages: a 3-disc combo pack (Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Copy); a 2-disc combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD); and a 1-disc DVD. The film will also be released as a Digital Download option in both standard and high definition. The DVD version will include two deleted scenes and "The Living Proof" music video by Mary J. Blige
. The Digital Download version will include the same features as the DVD version, plus one additional deleted scene. Both the 2-disc and 3-disc combo packs will include the same features as the DVD version, as well as "The Making of 'The Help:' From Friendship To Film," "In Their Own Words: A Tribute To The Maids Of Mississippi," and three deleted scenes with introductions by Director Tate Taylor.
2011 Hollywood Film Festival
:
38th People's Choice Awards
:
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett is an American novelist. She is known for her 2009 debut novel, The Help, which is about African American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s.-Career:...
's novel of the same name
The Help
The Help is an American situation comedy television series which premiered on The WB on March 5, 2004. The show was a raunchy comedy that focused on the hard-lucked life of a beauty school dropout, who now must work for the wealthy and spoiled Ridgeway family. The rest of the hired help are also...
. The film is about a young white woman, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, and her relationship with two black maids during Civil Rights era America in the early 1960s. Skeeter is a journalist who decides to write a controversial book from the point of view of the maids (known as the Help), exposing the racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
they are faced with as they work for white families.
The film takes place in Jackson
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, and stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis
Viola Davis
Viola Davis is an American actress.Known primarily as a stage actress, Davis won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for her role in King Hedley II . She won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role in the...
, Octavia Spencer
Octavia Spencer
Octavia L. Spencer is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her role on Ugly Betty as Constance Grady, the INS Agent turned stalker of Betty's father, Ignacio Suarez and in the 2011 movie The Help as Minny....
, Bryce Dallas Howard
Bryce Dallas Howard
Bryce Dallas Howard is an American film actress and daughter of director Ron Howard. She made her acting debut in her father's 1989 movie Parenthood and went on to have small roles in films and make stage appearances for the next several years...
, Jessica Chastain
Jessica Chastain
Jessica Chastain is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Jessica Chastain was born Jessica Howard in Northern California. She is one of five children. Her mother, Jerri, is a vegan chef, and her stepfather, Michael, is a firefighter. Chastain is also vegan herself. She took her...
, Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
, Mike Vogel
Mike Vogel
Michael James "Mike" Vogel is an American actor and former fashion model. Vogel began acting in 2001, and has since appeared in several films and series, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Grind, Poseidon, and Cloverfield.-Early life:Vogel was born in...
, Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
, and Allison Janney
Allison Janney
Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :...
. The Help opened to positive reviews and became a box office success with gross of $198.8 million against its budget of $25 million.
Plot
Aibileen Clark (Viola DavisViola Davis
Viola Davis is an American actress.Known primarily as a stage actress, Davis won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for her role in King Hedley II . She won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role in the...
) is a middle-aged black maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son. Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer
Octavia Spencer
Octavia L. Spencer is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her role on Ugly Betty as Constance Grady, the INS Agent turned stalker of Betty's father, Ignacio Suarez and in the 2011 movie The Help as Minny....
) is another black maid whose outspokenness has gotten her fired many times and built up a reputation for being a difficult employee, but she makes up for this with her phenomenal cooking skills.
Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone) is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating from the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
to find that her beloved childhood maid, Constantine, has quit while she was away. Skeeter is skeptical because she believes Constantine would have written to her.
Unlike her friends, who have all married and are having children, Skeeter is interested in a career as a writer. Her first job is as a "homemaker hints" columnist in the local paper, and she asks Aibileen for her help in answering domestic questions. Skeeter becomes uncomfortable with the attitude her friends have towards their "help", especially Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard
Bryce Dallas Howard
Bryce Dallas Howard is an American film actress and daughter of director Ron Howard. She made her acting debut in her father's 1989 movie Parenthood and went on to have small roles in films and make stage appearances for the next several years...
) and her "Home Help Sanitation Initiative", a proposed bill to provide for separate bathrooms for black help because she believes that 'they' [black people] carry different diseases to 'us' [white people]. Amidst the era of discrimination based on color, Skeeter is one of the few who believe otherwise, and she decides to write a book, The Help, based on the lives of the maids who have spent their entire life taking care of white children.
The maids are at first reluctant to talk to Skeeter, because they are afraid that they will lose their jobs or worse. Aibileen is the first to share her stories after she overhears Hilly's initiative and realizes that the children whom she has been raising are growing up to be just like their parents. Her friend, Minny, has just been fired as Hilly's maid and has gone to work for a wealthy social outcast, Celia Foote. Minny initially declines to participate but later agrees to share her stories as well.
Skeeter writes a draft of the story with Minny and Aibileen's stories in it and sends it to Miss Stein, an editor in New York, who thinks there may be some interest in it, but requires at least a dozen more maids' contributions before it can become a viable book. Believing that the book will only be publishable during the Civil Rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, which she likewise believes is a passing fad, Stein advises Skeeter to finish the book soon. No one comes forward until after Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi...
is assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi – with racial tensions running high, the maids realize that Skeeter's book will give them an opportunity for their voices to be heard, and Skeeter suddenly has numerous stories to include. Minny shares one last story with Skeeter and Aibilene, which she calls the "Terrible Awful," to ensure that no one will think that the book was written about Jackson, Mississippi. As revenge for firing her and accusing her of stealing, Minny bakes a chocolate pie and delivers it to Hilly. After Hilly has finished two slices, Minny informs her that she has baked her own feces into the pie. Minny tells Aibilene and Skeeter that by adding that part into the book, Hilly will try to prevent anyone from figuring out that she made her eat human feces and will convince the town that the book must be about some other town.
The book is accepted for publication and is a success, much to the delight of Skeeter and the maids. She shares her royalties with each of the maids who contributed, and is offered a job with a publishing company in New York. Later in the afternoon, Hilly hatches a plan to get rid of Aibileen as her help, by falsely accusing her of stealing silver while arranging it for meetings. As Aibileen tries to convince Hilly and Elizabeth of her innocence, Elizabeth's daughter, Mae Mobley, arrives and jumps on top of her, watching Aibileen being fired. Aibileen renounces Hilly as a godless woman and tells her that she will never have peace if she continues her vindictive ways and leaves her in limbo. Elizabeth is forced to accept the unacceptable firing of Aibileen, and Mae Mobley cries by the window shouting for Aibileen, as the maid leaves to start her own life.
Cast
- Emma Stone as Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a college graduate and aspiring writer.
- Lila Rogers as Young Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan
- Viola DavisViola DavisViola Davis is an American actress.Known primarily as a stage actress, Davis won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for her role in King Hedley II . She won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role in the...
as Aibileen Clark - Bryce Dallas HowardBryce Dallas HowardBryce Dallas Howard is an American film actress and daughter of director Ron Howard. She made her acting debut in her father's 1989 movie Parenthood and went on to have small roles in films and make stage appearances for the next several years...
as Hilly Holbrook, the town's racist and snooty ringleader. - Octavia SpencerOctavia SpencerOctavia L. Spencer is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her role on Ugly Betty as Constance Grady, the INS Agent turned stalker of Betty's father, Ignacio Suarez and in the 2011 movie The Help as Minny....
as Minny Jackson - Jessica ChastainJessica ChastainJessica Chastain is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Jessica Chastain was born Jessica Howard in Northern California. She is one of five children. Her mother, Jerri, is a vegan chef, and her stepfather, Michael, is a firefighter. Chastain is also vegan herself. She took her...
as Celia Foote, Minny's naive employer and Johnny's wife. - Ahna O'Reilly as Elizabeth Leefolt, Aibileen's employer.
- Allison JanneyAllison JanneyAllison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :...
as Charlotte Phelan, Skeeter's mother. - Anna CampAnna CampAnna Ragsdale Camp is an American stage and television actress. She is known for her role as Jill Mason in the 2008 Broadway revival of Equus and for her role as Sarah Newlin in the HBO television drama series True Blood....
as Jolene French - Chris LowellChris LowellChristopher "Chris" Lowell is an American television actor. He played the role of Stosh "Piz" Piznarski in the CW noir drama Veronica Mars and most recently played the character William "Dell" Parker in the ABC Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice.-Personal life:Lowell was born in Atlanta,...
as Stuart Whitworth, Skeeter's boyfriend and a senator's son. - Cicely TysonCicely TysonCicely Tyson is an American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for her Oscar-nominated role in the film Sounder and the television movies The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots....
as Constantine Bates - Mike VogelMike VogelMichael James "Mike" Vogel is an American actor and former fashion model. Vogel began acting in 2001, and has since appeared in several films and series, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Grind, Poseidon, and Cloverfield.-Early life:Vogel was born in...
as Johnny Foote, Hilly's ex-boyfriend and Celia's husband. - Sissy SpacekSissy SpacekSissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
as Mrs. Walters, Hilly's mother. - Brian KerwinBrian KerwinBrian Kerwin is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kerwin won the Theatre World Award in 1988 for the off-Broadway play Emily. His Broadway theatre credits include the 1997 revival of The Little Foxes and the Elaine May comedy After the Night and the Music in 2005...
as Robert Phelan, Skeeter's father. - Leslie JordanLeslie JordanLeslie Allen Jordan is an American actor and playwright.- Early life and career :Hailing from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and at a height of 4 ft 11 in , Jordan has made numerous appearances in both film and television...
as Mr. Blackly - Mary SteenburgenMary SteenburgenMary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
as Elain Stein - Nelsan EllisNelsan EllisNelsan Ellis is an award-winning American film and television actor and playwright. He is well known for his role as Lafayette Reynolds in the HBO series True Blood, which he has been playing since 2008.-Early and personal life:...
as Henry, the waiter - David OyelowoDavid Oyelowo- Background :Oyelowo was born in Oxford, England of Nigerian descent. He is married to actress Jessica Oyelowo and they have three sons.Oyelowo first attended a youth theatre after being invited by a girl to whom he was attracted. He then studied Theatre Studies for A level and his teacher...
as Preacher Green - Dana IveyDana IveyDana Robins Ivey is an American character actress, who has performed on Broadway and other stage roles, in film and on television.-Early life and family:Ivey was born in Atlanta, Georgia...
as Grace Higgenbottom
Production
In December 2009, VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reported that Chris Columbus
Chris Columbus (filmmaker)
Christopher Joseph "Chris" Columbus is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Columbus had his largest success with the first two films in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, along with Home Alone, the last...
, Michael Barnathan
Michael Barnathan
Michael Barnathan is a film producer who has produced and executive-produced films such as Used People, the first three Harry Potter films, Rent, Cheaper by the Dozen and Night at the Museum. He was also the producer for the 2010 film adaptation Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief of...
, and Mark Radcliffe would produce a film adaptation of The Help, under their production company 1492 Prods. Brunson Green of Harbinger Productions also co-produced. The film was written and directed by Stockett's childhood friend, Tate Taylor, who optioned film rights to the book before its release.
The first casting news for the production came in March 2010, when it was reported that Emma Stone was attached to play the role of Skeeter Phelan. Other actors were since cast, including Viola Davis
Viola Davis
Viola Davis is an American actress.Known primarily as a stage actress, Davis won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for her role in King Hedley II . She won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role in the...
as Aibileen; Bryce Dallas Howard
Bryce Dallas Howard
Bryce Dallas Howard is an American film actress and daughter of director Ron Howard. She made her acting debut in her father's 1989 movie Parenthood and went on to have small roles in films and make stage appearances for the next several years...
as Hilly Holbrook, Jackson's snooty town ringleader; Allison Janney
Allison Janney
Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :...
as Charlotte Phelan, Skeeter's mother; and Chris Lowell
Chris Lowell
Christopher "Chris" Lowell is an American television actor. He played the role of Stosh "Piz" Piznarski in the CW noir drama Veronica Mars and most recently played the character William "Dell" Parker in the ABC Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice.-Personal life:Lowell was born in Atlanta,...
as Stuart Whitworth, Skeeter's boyfriend and a senator's son. Leslie Jordan
Leslie Jordan
Leslie Allen Jordan is an American actor and playwright.- Early life and career :Hailing from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and at a height of 4 ft 11 in , Jordan has made numerous appearances in both film and television...
appears as the editor of the fictional local newspaper, The Jackson Journal. Mike Vogel
Mike Vogel
Michael James "Mike" Vogel is an American actor and former fashion model. Vogel began acting in 2001, and has since appeared in several films and series, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Grind, Poseidon, and Cloverfield.-Early life:Vogel was born in...
plays the character Johnny Foote. Octavia Spencer
Octavia Spencer
Octavia L. Spencer is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her role on Ugly Betty as Constance Grady, the INS Agent turned stalker of Betty's father, Ignacio Suarez and in the 2011 movie The Help as Minny....
portrays Minny. A longtime friend of Stockett and Taylor, Spencer inspired the character of Minny in Stockett's novel and voiced her in the audiobook version.
Filming of The Help began in July 2010 and extended through October. The town of Greenwood, Mississippi
Greenwood, Mississippi
Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta approximately 96 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi, and 130 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. The population was 15,205 at the 2010 census. It is the...
was chosen to portray 1960s-era Jackson, and producer Brunson Green said he had expected to shoot "95 percent" of the movie there. Parts of the film were also shot in the real-life Jackson, as well as in nearby Clarksdale
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale is a city in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 20,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Coahoma County....
and Greenville
Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 48,633 at the 2000 census, but according to the 2009 census bureau estimates, it has since declined to 42,764, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. It is the county seat of Washington...
. One of the few locations that existed in 1963 Jackson, the book and the movie is Jackson landmark Brent's Drugs, which dates to 1946. Other locations that can still be found in Jackson include the New Capitol Building
Mississippi State Capitol
The Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, is the state capitol building of the U.S. state of Mississippi, housing the Mississippi Legislature...
and the Mayflower Cafe downtown. Scenes set at the Jackson Journal office were shot in Clarksdale at the building which formerly housed the Clarksdale Press Register
Clarksdale Press Register
The Clarksdale Press Register is the daily newspaper of Clarksdale, Mississippi. It is owned by Emmerich Newspapers.-External links:*...
for 40 years until April 2010.
The Help was the most significant film production in Mississippi since 2000's O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 comedy film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. Set in 1937 rural Mississippi during the Great Depression, the film's story is a modern satire loosely...
"Honestly, my heart would be broken if it were set anywhere but Mississippi", Stockett wrote in an e-mail to reporters. In order to convince producers to shoot in Greenwood, Tate Taylor and others had previously come to the town and scouted out locations; at his first meeting with DreamWorks executives, he presented them with a photo album of potential filming spots in the area. The state's tax incentive program for filmmakers was also a key enticement in the decision.
Release
On October 13, 2010, Touchstone Pictures and DreamWorks gave the film a release date of August 12, 2011. On July 5, 2011, the film's release date was rescheduled two days earlier to August 10, 2011.Box office
The Help has grossed $168,753,480 in North America, and $30,100,000 in other territories, as of November 27, 2011, for a worldwide total of $198,853,480.On its opening day (Wednesday, August 10, 2011), The Help topped the box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
with $5.54 million. It then added $4.33 million on Thursday, declining only 21%, for a two-day total to $9.87 million. On its first weekend, The Help grossed $26.0 million, coming in second place behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes. However, during its second weekend, The Help jumped to the number one spot at the box office, beating the previous weekend's number one film (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) as well as all four new nationwide releases (Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, Conan the Barbarian, Fright Night
Fright Night (2011 film)
Fright Night is a 2011 3D comedy horror film directed by Craig Gillespie. It is a remake of the 1985 Tom Holland film of the same name. The film had its premiere at The O2 in London on August 14, 2011, and was widely released on August 19 in Real D 3D & IMAX 3D.-Plot:The film opens with a vampire ...
and One Day
One Day (film)
One Day is a film directed by Lone Scherfig. It was adapted by David Nicholls from his 2009 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess...
). All this thanks to a decline of only 23%, the smallest among films playing nationwide, to $20.0 million. The Help retained first place in its third weekend, again beating all three new nationwide releases (Colombiana
Colombiana (film)
Colombiana is a 2011 French-American action film co-written and produced by Luc Besson and directed by Olivier Megaton. The film stars Zoë Saldana in the lead role...
, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2011 film)
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is a 2011 American horror film written by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro, directed by comic book artist Troy Nixey and filmed in Mount Macedon, Victoria and Melbourne, Australia...
and Our Idiot Brother) dropping only 27% to $14.5 million. The film crossed the $100 million mark on its 21st day of release, becoming one of only two titles in August 2011 that achieved this. On its fourth weekend (Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
3-day weekend), it became the only 2011 film, and the first film since Inception
Inception
Inception: The Subconscious Jams 1994-1995 is a compilation of unreleased tracks by the band Download.-Track listing:# "Primitive Tekno Jam" – 3:23# "Bee Sting Sickness" – 8:04# "Weed Acid Techno" – 8:19...
, to top the box-office charts for three consecutive weekends. Up just 0.4% to $14.6 million, it out-grossed all new nationwide releases (The Debt, Apollo 18
Apollo 18 (film)
Apollo 18 is a 2011 American science fiction horror film directed by Gonzalo López-Gallego and produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Ron Schmidt. The film's premise is that the officially canceled Apollo 18 mission was actually launched in December 1973 but never returned, and as a result the United...
and Shark Night 3D
Shark Night 3D
Shark Night 3D is a 3-D horror-thriller film directed by David R. Ellis. It stars Sara Paxton, Alyssa Diaz, Dustin Milligan, Katharine McPhee, and Joel David Moore...
). During the 4-day weekend, it was still in first place with a $19.9 million haul, which was the fourth largest gross for a Labor-day weekend. As of September 2011, it is the 7th highest-grossing Drama-Summer film (serious drama that debuted in the summer), according to Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...
. Notably, The Help topped the box office for 25 days in a row. This was the longest uninterrupted streak since The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear , a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist who tries to help him...
(35 days), which was also a late summer release, in 1999.
Reception
The Help received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 75% of 188 professional critics gave the film a positive review, with an average critical score of 7/10. The site's consensus stated, "Though arguably guilty of glossing over its racial themes, The Help rises on the strength of its cast -- particularly Viola Davis
Viola Davis
Viola Davis is an American actress.Known primarily as a stage actress, Davis won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for her role in King Hedley II . She won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role in the...
, whose performance is powerful enough to carry the film on its own." Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, a review aggregator which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 62 based on 40 reviews. CinemaScore
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.-Background:...
polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was an A+ on an A+ to F scale.
Tom Long from The Detroit News
The Detroit News
The Detroit News is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival Free Press's building. The News absorbed the Detroit Tribune on February 1, 1919, the Detroit Journal on July 21, 1922, and on November 7, 1960,...
remarked about the film: "Appalling, entertaining, touching and perhaps even a bit healing, The Help is an old-fashioned grand yarn of a film, the sort we rarely get these days." Connie Ogle of The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
gave the film three out of four stars and said it "will make you laugh, yes, but it can also break your heart. In the dog days of August moviegoing, that's a powerful recommendation."
More on the mixed side was Karina Longworth of the Village Voice: "We get a fairly typical Hollywood flattening of history, with powerful villains and disenfranchised heroes." Rick Gloen of The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
, giving the film two out of four stars, said: "Typically, this sort of film is an earnest tear-jerker with moments of levity. Instead, what we have here is a raucous rib-tickler with occasional pauses for a little dramatic relief."
Some of the negative reviews criticized the film for its inability to match the book's level of greatness. Chris Hewitt of the St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is a newspaper based in St. Paul, Minnesota, primarily serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the eastern metro region, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, along with western Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota and Anoka County,...
said about the film: "Some adaptations find a fresh, cinematic way to convey a book's spirit but The Help doesn't."
Many critics praised the performances of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Wilson Morales of Blackfilm.com gave the movie 3 out of 4 stars and commented, "With powerful performances given by Viola Davis and scene stealer Octavia Spencer, the film is an emotionally, moving drama that remains highly entertaining." David Edelstein from New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine commented that, "The Help belongs to Viola Davis."
Ida E. Jones, the national director of the Association of Black Women Historians, released an open statement criticizing "The Help" in An Open Statement to the Fans of The Help. The letter stated that "[d]espite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers." The group of scholars accused both the book and the film of insensitive portrayals of African-American vernacular, a nearly uniform depiction of black men as cruel or absent, and a failure to acknowledge the sexual harassment that many black women endured in their white employers’ homes. Jones concluded by saying that "The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women’s lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment."
Roxane Gay of literary web magazine The Rumpus articulated reasons the film might be offensive to African Americans, mentioning the film's use of racial Hollywood stereotypes like the Magical Negro
Magical negro
The Magical Negro, or magical African-American friend, is a supporting stock character in American cinema, who, by use of special insight or powers, helps the white protagonist....
and Gone With the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
s Mammy.
To help promote the movie, TakePart.com hosted a series of three writing contests . Rebecca Lubin, of Mill Valley, CA, who has been a nanny for nearly two decades won the recipe contest. Darcy Pattison’s “11 Ways to Ruin a Photograph” won "The Help" Children's Story Contest with her story about a tenacious young girl who refuses to take a good photograph while her father is away “soldiering.” After being chosen by guest judge and children’s book author Lou Berger, the story was professionally illustrated. The final contest was about "someone who inspired you." Genoveva Islas-Hooker charmed guest judge Doc Hendley (founder of Wine to Water) with her story, A Heroine Named Confidential. A case manager for patients with HIV, Islas-Hooker was consistently inspired by one special individual who never gave up the fight to live.
Home media
The film will be released on Blu-ray, DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, and Digital Download on December 6, 2011. The release will be produced in three different physical packages: a 3-disc combo pack (Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Copy); a 2-disc combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD); and a 1-disc DVD. The film will also be released as a Digital Download option in both standard and high definition. The DVD version will include two deleted scenes and "The Living Proof" music video by Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...
. The Digital Download version will include the same features as the DVD version, plus one additional deleted scene. Both the 2-disc and 3-disc combo packs will include the same features as the DVD version, as well as "The Making of 'The Help:' From Friendship To Film," "In Their Own Words: A Tribute To The Maids Of Mississippi," and three deleted scenes with introductions by Director Tate Taylor.
Awards
the film has won and been nominated in the following.2011 Hollywood Film Festival
Hollywood Film Festival
The Hollywood Film Festival is an annual Film festival which is located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Festival was established in 1997 by Carlos de Abreu and his wife, model Janice Pennington....
:
- "Ensemble of the Year" - Won
- "Hollywood Breakthrough Award" - Jessica ChastainJessica ChastainJessica Chastain is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Jessica Chastain was born Jessica Howard in Northern California. She is one of five children. Her mother, Jerri, is a vegan chef, and her stepfather, Michael, is a firefighter. Chastain is also vegan herself. She took her...
- Won
38th People's Choice Awards
38th People's Choice Awards
The 38th People's Choice Awards, honoring the best in popular culture for 2011, will be held on January 11, 2012 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California, and were broadcast live on CBS at 9:00 pm ET.On November 8, the nominees were announced...
:
- "Favorite Movie" - Pending
- "Favorite Drama Movie" - Pending
- "Favorite Book Adaptation" - Pending
- "Favorite Movie Actress" - Emma Stone - Pending
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards....
- Best Supporting Actress - Jessica ChastainJessica ChastainJessica Chastain is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Jessica Chastain was born Jessica Howard in Northern California. She is one of five children. Her mother, Jerri, is a vegan chef, and her stepfather, Michael, is a firefighter. Chastain is also vegan herself. She took her...
(also for Take ShelterTake ShelterTake Shelter is a 2011 American drama film starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. The film is written and directed by Jeff Nichols. Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from...
and The Tree of Life)
External links
- civilrightstravel, The Helps filming locations and associated civil rights history