Well, given the upcoming Oscars, I should weigh in on The Help and its four Oscar nominations. Based on the well-received novel by Kathryn Stockett, it is the story of black maids raising white children amid the hatefully poisonous racism of 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. Unfortunately, the film is overlong, plodding and wastes the talents of an unholy multitude of our greatest actresses.
I am told by The Wife that the characters in the novel are full and textured. The problem with the movie is that the characters are cartoonish cardboard cutouts of real people. Unfortunately, Stockett’s novel was adapted by director Tate Taylor, and he stripped any hint of nuance or ambiguity from virtually every role. Octavia Spencer and Allison Janney play characters that have a mix of human virtues and foibles. But the rest of the awesome cast – Olivia Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Cecily Tyson, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen and Emma Stone – must play either saints or bitches.
Davis and Spencer are nominated for acting Oscars, and I wish them well. But here’s a baffler – Chastain is a brilliant actress who has delivered not one but FIVE superb performances this year (Take Shelter, The Tree of Life, The Debt, Coriolanus, Texas Killing Fields), yet she is nominated for the one role written so broadly that she is obviously acting (The Help).