Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Help: The movie

My wife had wanted to read the book before we saw the movie but that didn't happen so we went to it before we all took her out to dinner on her birthday. I was very moved by the movie as I understood as I was growing up how it really was back then. Also, to have these all be true stories told to the young female author from Jackson, Mississippi by the maids she interviewed made it all the more poignant. Was life really like this? I think it all was caricatured in some ways to make it more flashy but generally things probably were just like this in many ways. What I enjoyed about all this was how the author was one of the "Ladies" of Jackson and even belonged to the  "Women's club" depicted in the story. You can see how she looked up to the maid who basically raised her that she looked up to who gave her the courage to actually be brave enough to write about this even though it was illegal to do so in Mississippi in those days according to Mississippi State law. So, if you just want to be entertained I wouldn't go see this movie because even though it is entertaining you have to know it is all true and that will rip your heart out. And if you aren't ready for that you might not be ready to see this movie. If you have a heart it will make you cry. So get ready. But there are also some lighter moments in the movie as well.

What is great about this movie is to watch how women of both races solve their problems without physical violence. If you had made a movie about white and black men then it would be very ugly. This movie is not ugly it is both very sad and very beautiful at the same time. It makes you have faith in the human spirit to survive anything to watch this movie.

No comments: