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The Help

Posted on August 9, 2011 at 6:00 pm

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: Middle School
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for thematic material
Profanity: Some strong language, racist terms of the era
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness: Some graphic scenes of a miscarriage, disturbing material about pre Civil Rights-era racial discrimination, references to murder of Medgar Evers
Diversity Issues: A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters: August 10, 2011
Date Released to DVD: December 5, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN: B005J6LKVI

The book-club favorite about African-American women working as domestics in the early Civil Rights era South has been lovingly turned into a film that like its source material engages with its sensitive subject matter humbly and sincerely.

Kathryn Stockett grew up in Jackson, Mississippi and was devoted to her family’s “help,” which inspired her first novel, the story of Skeeter, an awkward girl just out of college (Emma Stone) who persuades the women who work as domestics to tell her their stories for a book.  This is a minefield of an idea, which may be one reason the book was rejected 60 times.  We are rightly sensitive about the presumption of a white woman acting as interpreter or, even worse, as liberator.  And Stockett had her African-American characters speaking in dialect.  There can be no better proof that we have still not figured out how to handle these issues than this summer’s cover of Vanity Fair with a bikini-clad photo of Stone, describing her on the inside of the magazine as the “star” of “The Help.”  She is not the star, just as her character is not the author of the book she produces.  She is the ingenue.  The stars of the story are the maids played by Viola Davis (Aibileen Clark) and Octavia Spencer (Minny Jackson).  Entertainment Weekly did a much better job.  All three actresses appear on the cover, with a headline: “How do you turn a beloved, racially charged book into a moving, funny film?  Very carefully.”

That is thanks to Stockett’s closest childhood friend, Tate Taylor, who grew up with her in Jackson, who optioned the book before it was published, and who wrote and directed the film, and who insisted it be shot in Mississippi and that it reflect the South he knew.

Skeeter is accepted by the ladies who run things in Jackson, but she does not fit in.  She is not married and hopes for something beyond bridge club luncheons and dinner-dances.  She applies for a job at the local newspaper and is hired to do the household hints column.  Since she knows nothing about cooking, cleaning, or laundry, she asks her friend’s maid, Aibeleen, for help.  As they talk, she becomes more aware of the bigotry around her and of her own failure to oppose it.  She begins to wonder about the lives of the women who raise the children and feed the families in her community but are not permitted to use the bathrooms that they scrub.  A New York publisher (Mary Steenburgen) encourages her to collect their stories for a ground-breaking book.  Skeeter asks Aibeleen and Minny to help her, knowing that she may be putting them at risk of losing their jobs, or worse.  Privately, Skeeter works on the book.  Quietly, and then less quietly, she works to oppose a local initiative to require all homes to build separate “colored” bathrooms.

The woman behind the initiative is Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), ostensibly Skeeter’s best friend and the alpha girl in their community.  It is less a matter of prejudice than a struggle for power, but that just makes Skeeter’s refusal to go along more inflammatory.  Meanwhile, Hilly has fired Minny, who goes to work for Celia (Jessica Chastain), a pretty blonde from the lower class who does not realize that she is being frozen out by the society ladies of the town.  And the more Hilly feels threatened, the more the pushes for her “sanitation” initiative.

Taylor said that Greenwood, Mississippi is closer to what Jackson looked like in the 60’s than Jackson is now and the period detail pulls us into the story.  Octavia Spencer, playing a part she helped to inspire, does not let Minny become a caricature and Viola Davis gives another richly layered performance as the quieter Aibeleen.  If Howard makes Hilly a little too shrill (and the ending more upbeat than would have been possible in that era) it is understandable given the changing times.  No one would believe today that such a short time ago, blatant virulence could be so casual, which is why the conversations this movie will prompt are so important.  And Stockett deserves credit for her care in acknowledging moments of generosity and affection on all sides in spite of the restrictions of the era.

This is an involving drama with respect for its characters that has some important points to make about race and gender, about the past that still haunts us, about friendship and passion, and most of all about the transformative power of stories, the ones we tell and the ones we listen to.  As Douglas Adams wrote:

It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion about them.   On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to sit all day, every day, on top of another creature and not have the slightest thought about them whatsoever.

“The Help” does not pretend to be perfect, but it is an honorable step forward and one of the most heartwarming dramas of the year.

(more…)

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Gidget (3-Pack)

Posted on July 5, 2011 at 8:00 am

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: Middle School
MPAA Rating: Not rated
Profanity: None
Alcohol/ Drugs: Some drinking
Violence/ Scariness: Mild peril
Diversity Issues: None
Date Released to Theaters: 1959
Date Released to DVD: July 5, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN: B000286S2E

A new DVD 3-pack of all three “Gidget” movies comes out today, and they’re worth another look, especially the 1959 original with Sandra Dee and James Darren.  Dee plays Francie, a sheltered and somewhat naive girl who thinks that it is still to make a fuss over boys.  But she is very interested in this new all-male activity on the beach called surfing and the cusp-of-the-60’s pre-counter culture guys who are devoted to it.  Their leader is played by Cliff Robertson as a pilot who is taking a break from real life to live on the beach (literally).  They take her on as something of a mascot, calling her Gidget (girl plus midget), and everybody has some growing up to do.  It’s probably not as sugary as you recall and it holds up pretty well.  The story, by the way, was inspired by the daughter of the author, Frederick Kohner.  You can see the real-life Gidget, still surfing, in the wonderful documentary, Step Into Liquid.

In the first sequel, “Gidget Goes Hawaiian,” Deborah Walley takes over for Dee and Darren returns.  A romantic misunderstanding arises when a mean girl spreads a rumor that Gidget and her boyfriend have gone what in those days was called “all the way.”  Everything is straightened out and Gidget’s good girl reputation is protected.  Watch for a very cute dance number with Broadway hoofer Michael Callan, the original Riff in the stage production of “West Side Story.”

The third episode is the weakest, with Cindy Carol as Gidget and a silly jealousy story, but the wonderful Jessie Royce Landis is a treat as something of a drowsy chaperone.  I still think of this movie whenever I hear the names Paolo and Francesca.

And don’t forget the Gidget television series, starring Sally Field, which included a guest-star appearance from her fellow future Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss.

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1776

Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:56 pm

A
Lowest Recommended Age: 4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for language
Profanity: Some mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness: References to war
Diversity Issues: A theme of the film, decisions to maintain slavery and lack of rights for women
Date Released to Theaters: 1972
Date Released to DVD: July 2, 2012
Amazon.com ASIN: B000067D1R

Happy Independence Day!  There’s only one possible pick of the week for the 4th of July.

1776.jpg

This rousing musical about the Declaration of Independence makes the Founding Fathers vivid, human, and interesting characters, and is so involving that you almost forget that you already know how it all turned out. William Daniels is the “obnoxious and disliked” John Adams, Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, who would rather be with his wife than work on the Declaration, and Howard da Silva is a wry and witty Benjamin Franklin. As they debate independence, we see the courage that went into the birth of the United States, and as they compromise with the South to permit slavery in the brand-new country we see the tragedy.  It is outstanding family entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iiiy8GnBNI
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The Man Who Would Be King

Posted on June 6, 2011 at 8:00 am

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: Middle School
MPAA Rating: PG
Profanity: Mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking
Violence/ Scariness: Characters in peril, injured and killed, some graphic and disturbing images
Diversity Issues: Reflects the racial and cultural prejudices of the era
Date Released to Theaters: 1975
Date Released to DVD: June 6, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN: B0045HCIZE

Director John Houston’s “The Man Who Would Be King,” released this week for the first time on Blu-Ray, is a magnificent spectacle, based on a story by Rudyard Kipling.  Michael Caine and Sean Connery star as British sergeants and adventurers during the colonialist era of the British Raj.  They travel to Kafiristan (now Afghanistan) and are briefly able to persuade the indigenous people that one of them is a god.  Caine’s real-life wife co-stars in one of those they-don’t-make-them-like-that-anymore adventure sagas.  Indeed, Houston had hoped at one time to film it with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart.  I would love to have seen it, but I am certain it could not have been any better than this thrilling and touching story.

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The North Star…And More Stories About Following Your Dreams

Posted on May 30, 2011 at 7:00 am

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: All Ages
MPAA Rating: NR
Profanity: None
Alcohol/ Drugs: None
Violence/ Scariness: None
Diversity Issues: Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters: May 30, 2011

The latest from my very favorite series of DVDs for families has one of my very favorite books, Swamp Angel, in a collection of stories about lifelong learning and  following your dreams.

The stories are:

THE NORTH STAR (Written and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, narrated by Tim Curry) In this classic storybook about lifelong learning, children of all ages will be inspired to navigate their full potential and follow their dreams.

THAT BOOK WOMAN (By Heather Henson, illustrated by David Small, narrated by Walker Harrison) This is the moving story of the Pack Horse Librarians, whose bravery and commitment helped rural children find something wonderful in books.

PLAYERS IN PIGTAILS (By Shana Corey, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon, narrated by Zooey Deschanel) One brave girl proves that she’s in a league of her own as she strives to become a player in the first-ever All-American Girls Professional Baseball league.

YO! YES? (Written and illustrated by Chris Raschka) Two lonely boys who don’t know each other meet on a city street with a simple greeting in this heart-warming tale of friendship and cooperation.

SWAMP ANGEL (By Anne Isaacs, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, narrated by Alison Moorer) Angelica, or “Swamp Angel,” the greatest woodswoman in Tennessee, takes on a huge ravenous bear known as Thundering Tarnation. Can she tackle this beast?

I have one copy to give away.  Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with “Star” in the subject line and tell me your favorite story about a dream.  Don’t forget your address!  I’ll pick a winner at random on June 6.

 

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