For more on The Help – including photos of Viola Davis as Aibileen and Octavia Spencer as Minny – pick up the Nov. 8 issue of People, on newsstands now. Directed by Tate Taylor. But it also helps transform "The Help" into splendid entertainment - a film that makes us root for the good guys, hiss at the bad and convulse in laughter when good wreaks vengeance with a smile. Now 79, Tyson is the film's quavering moral center, the one who doles out life lessons and - for anyone who remembers her in "Roots" and "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" - connects "The Help" with those germinal African American historical sagas of the 1970s. Which is, come to think of it, both the movie's one real weakness and its greatest strength: by relying so heavily on the high-gloss perfidy of an awful woman, it demonizes her and distances the rest of us from any cultural responsibility. The movie isn't all yuks, not by a long shot, but "The Help" finds comic release in the story of black maids and bigoted white employers at the dawn of the civil rights era. At its core, The Help is an exploration of the ways in which racism pervaded every aspect of social life in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi – from Jim Crow laws that sanctioned discrimination and segregation as official policy to casual conversations between middle-class white women. Coyote Ugly Turns 20: Where Is the Cast Now? TH-077 The Help, Kathryn Stockett's debut novel, tells the story of black maids working in white Southern homes in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, and of Miss Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a 22-year-old graduate from Ole Miss, who returns to her family's cotton plantation, Longleaf, to find that her beloved maid and nanny, Constantine, has left and no one will tell her why. ©DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC. The trouble on the pages of Skeeter’s book is nothing compared with the trouble Ms. Stockett’s real book risks getting into.  All Rights Reserved. The female servants do the cooking and cleaning, but their primary responsibility is child-rearing. FF-001 But the thing that makes "The Help" such a rousing crowd-pleaser is its generous helping of baked goods. "THE HELP" The plot plays out against a loose historical backdrop - MLK, JFK, Medgar Evers - but focuses on the lives of just a few households in Jackson, Miss. At Bay Area theaters.). Quickly she zeroes in on the help - their lives, their struggles, the babies they've raised - as the subject for a book. Remembering the controversy of the 2005 Fillmore Street ski jump, New Yorker publishes explosive story on Kimberly Guilfoyle's departure from Fox News, Presidents have often deceived the public about their illnesses, Pence ordered borders closed after CDC experts refused. If, like me, you haven't, you're in for a doozy of a scene - a sidesplitting dose of cathartic payback that's best experienced in a crowded theater. E-mail Amy Biancolli at datebookletters@sfchronicle.com. Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) overhears the exchange between Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone, center) and her friends in DreamWorks Pictures' drama, "The Help", based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. In Jackson, Mississippi in 1963, Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis, left) and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) take a risk that could have profound consequences for them both in DreamWorks Pictures' drama, "The Help", based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. Legendary Bay Area musician dead at age 69. ©DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC. She's on her 17th, a plump cherub whose putative mother (Ahna O'Reilly) barely touches her. “The minute I met [Stone], I knew I couldn’t see whatever Skeeter looked in my head as a blonde because she was replaced by Emma,” Stockett tells PEOPLE. Aibileen's friend Minny (Octavia Spencer) works for Hilly (a radiantly odious Bryce Dallas Howard), whose "health sanitation initiative" would force white families to build separate bathrooms for black workers. And her mom is from Baton Rouge, so she got the accent.”, RELATED: Emma Stone Swings from Easy A to New Spider-Man, Stockett, who makes a cameo in the movie, adds, Stone’s body type fits the envisioned mold of Skeeter as well. 946_D_03188 "The Help" is loaded with spirited character turns, the best of them Spencer's: that comic glare of hers is looking major stardom in the face. "THE HELP" 1 of 4 "THE HELP" FF-001 Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) overhears the exchange between Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone, center) and her friends in DreamWorks Pictures' drama, "The Help", based on …  All Rights Reserved. 946_D_08558R SF’s historic movie theaters team up for drive-in... Closed 116-year-old SF hotel puts on live shows in... Opinion: Why it's OK to only skim articles on the... Trump seemed to defy the laws of science and disease. Is this how you thought Skeeter would look? 'The Help' review: A heaping helping of bigotry. Get push notifications with news, features and more. Other standouts include Leslie Jordan as a nutty little editor; Sissy Spacek as Hilly's loopy, laughing mother; Jessica Chastain as a joyously low-rent ditz with a painful secret; and Cicely Tyson, appearing in flashback, as the beloved maid who raised Skeeter. CDC NIOSH-approved N95 masks are $13 per 2-pack, Savage X Fenty women’s underwear is 30% off at Amazon, TONS of Madewell jeans are $75 all weekend. The Help is set in Mississippi during the early 1960s, when the groundswell of feminism's "second wave" was still building.Kathryn Stockett's novel revolves around events in 1962-1963, before the women's liberation movement, before Betty Friedan and other feminist leaders founded the National Organization for Women, before the media invented the myth of bra-burning. The film, based on three Southern women who strike up an unlikely friendship during the 1960s Civil Rights movement, hits theaters in August 2011. “I was really glad they were able to find somebody who had the height.”. SNL: Rudolph returns as 'Vice President In Charge'... How a venue built on a city dump became a Bay Area icon. The blockbuster book The Help is now a movie, with Emma Stone, 21, playing Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, and already the actress has received one rave review – from author Kathryn Stockett. Ph: Dale Robinette In Jackson, Mississippi in 1963, (left to right) Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), Minnie Jackson (Octavia Spencer) and Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) together take a risk that could have profound consequences for them all in DreamWorks Pictures' drama, "The Help", based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. "The Help," based on the novel of the same name, comes out in theaters today In it, a white writer tells the story of a group of black domestics in the 1960s Journalist says Hollywood has a … ©DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC. Ph: Dale Robinette (PG-13. The warmth felt for these women is palpable. “She was so clearly that person. So is the outright disgust with the chichi white establishment, whose brittle and unblinking racism makes a solid foundation for cinematic villainy; Hilly Holbrook may be the purest embodiment of feminine evil since the Wicked Witch of the West. The author says she knew Stone fit the role of Skeeter "the minute I met her". 146 minutes. “She’s so lanky, she’s all leg,” the author says. S et in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s, 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett shows the peak of racial segregation. Nothing says a family vacation like an RV, Princess Diana died when Harry was just 12 years old, It's looked — and felt — like a whole different world as we've been social distancing and attempting to keep each other safe, See All the Celebs Taking RV Trips This Summer, The Sweetest Photos of Princes Harry with Diana, From Empty Streets to Virtual Weddings: What Life Has Looked Like During the Coronavirus Pandemic. With Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard and Emma Stone. In Jackson, Mississippi in 1963, (left to right) Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), Minnie Jackson (Octavia Spencer) and Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) together take a risk that could have profound consequences for them all in "The Help." Here is a debut novel by … The book is narrated by three very different women; Minny, a … ÊAll Rights Reserved. Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis, standing) attends to the needs of Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard, seated center) and her friends Elizabeth Leefolt (Ahna O'Reilly, left) and Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone, right) in DreamWorks Pictures' drama, "The Help", based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. Introducing ... PEOPLE's Products Worth the Hype. "THE HELP" If you would like to opt out of browser push notifications, please refer to the following instructions specific to your device and browser: this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Both of them grew up in Jackson, and both had "help" who raised them. "THE HELP" Then, the coronavirus caught up with him. Into this scene of entrenched segregation comes Skeeter (Emma Stone), an Ole Miss graduate in search of a writing career. The servants get passed down within families from generation to generation, so … You'll get the latest updates on this topic in your browser notifications.  All Rights Reserved. Good story, great characters, a setting plucked from history - and a multiracial, multigenerational ensemble cast stacked with fabulous actresses. The blockbuster book The Help is now a movie, with Emma Stone, 21, playing Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, and already the actress has received one rave review – from author Kathryn Stockett. The first help we meet is Aibileen (Viola Davis, sadder and wiser than ever), a housekeeper long accustomed to rearing other people's children. Text us for exclusive photos and videos, royal news, and way more. Ph: Dale Robinette Comedy-drama. 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