You said to write about what disturbs me, particularly if it bothers no one else.
-Skeeter

Kathryn Stockett and Tate Taylor were childhood friends growing up in Jackson, Mississippi. They were both raised by African-American nannies, Tate even says he was raised with two mothers. There's no need to mention where Stockett got her inspiration for writing the 2009 novel, The Help which takes place in 1960s Jackson, or why Tate purchased the film rights for it before it was even published. He would go on to write and direct the film.

I mentioned all that because I no longer see this film as a weak attempt at social commentary on the civil rights movement, but rather a simple tribute…

I think it only fair to say that I fully expected to hate this film as I was predicting an award baiting Message movie that simplified the issue to the point of caricature; and that is exactly what The Help is. What partially saves this from being as self-satisfied as the hideous Blind Side is the quality of the cast which, whilst working with crude and stereotypical characters, deliver fine performances.

Rather than a film highlighting the unseen gross inequalities of 1960s America, The Help is more accurately a film where a modern audience can feel super-duper about how far we’ve come in fifty years. Now it is true that the racial and gender balance has improved (although we are…

At first doubts were cast over The Help as it seemed that it, like many others before, would be centred on a hastily produced screenplay as more recent book adaptations are. These films are rushed into production and fail to live up to the reputation of the novel. The screenplay for The Help was not rushed; in fact the timing couldn’t have been better. The script was finished around the same time as the book because the rights to adapt the novel were sold to little known director, and close friend of the author, Tate Taylor back in 2008.

Taylor’s connection with the original author is instantly noticed and his direction and writing replicates the depth and realism of the…

De wonderen zijn de wereld nog niet uit: de film die zich deze zomer de onverslaanbare keizer aan de Amerikaanse bioscoopkassa's mocht noemen was voor één keer geen migraine-oprispende actiepreut of infantiele prefabanimatie. Meer zelfs, de film in kwestie is een schets van de raciale spanningen in het Mississippi rond het begin van de jaren zestig. Uiteindelijk mag het geen verbazing heten dat deze ‘The help' nét nu de box office aanvoert: in tijden waarin een zwarte president in het Oval Office huist is ‘The help' een urgent, maar zoetgevooisd stukje geschiedschrijving over hoop, verandering en burgerrechten. Kortom... een ‘Forrest Gump' voor de Obama-legislatuur.

Centraal in ‘The help' staat de ambitieuze Eugenia Phelan (‘Skeeter' voor de vrienden) die na haar…