Usually a movie of this caliber with Oscar contender performances hits the theaters late in the year, but to see it at the end of Summer blockbuster season is a surprise and a joy. Maybe Hollywood undervalued it, seeing mostly a female cast and defiantly female issues of the South in the sixties, but the mostly female audience I watched it with was moved to applause at the end of the film – a rarity in this Los Angeles cynical movie-going city. 

I add a disclaimer here that I did not read the same titled best-selling novel written by Kathryn Stockett, but the adaptation to the big screen by the movie’s writer/director, Tate Taylor, is accomplished.  The movie looks at friendship and love through the eyes of women, when an aspiring white writer secretly and illegally collects the stories of  the black maids in the segregated town she grew up in, Jackson, Mississippi. 

What hits you over the head is the searing detail of the time, where pain, prejudice and fear are daily routine and sweet little girls grow up to be sometimes hurtful moms and  despicable ladies of society, often passing off their self-determination to others.  “Society” becomes a character in their life and drives them to give up their voice. On the other hand, you have a whole other society just yearning to have their own voice.  

The power in this movie comes from not only the rich characters Tate brings to life with humor and profound emotion, but also in the depth and grit these actors bring to very difficult roles. The standouts in a cast of standouts are Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.    

Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis

Stone play Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, who after graduating from Ole Miss dreams of heading to New York to pursue a career as a reporter or novelist. Told by a Manhattan publisher to get more experience, Skeeter lands a job at the local paper writing a housekeeping advice column. She turns for advice to her friend’s black maid, Aibileen Clark (Davis). A bit of an oddity to her circle not only in looks but ambition, Skeeter dances the line between what’s expected, to marry well, and what she wants, to be a career woman. And it’s both the lie told to her about what happened while at college to her dear maid that raised her, and the opening of her eyes to how her friends now treat each other and the very maids that raised them, gives Skeeter the idea to collect ”the helps” stories and really write something that will make a difference.

The Manhattan publisher loves the idea, if Skeeter can carry it off, but informs her that she needs at least a dozen maids to really have a book there.  Skeeter has convinced Aibileen to share her life stories, but it’s not until the delightfully outspoken Minny (Spencer) comes on board does the weight of their decision  to divulge these secrets hit home, and the book becomes a real possibility.  All three women know that speaking these issues, even gathering in Aibileen’s home is a punishable crime in Mississippi.

Every good female story likes this needs a good female bitch villian and Skeeter’s friend and head of the society pack, Hilly, played to a T by Bryce Dallas Howard, takes bitchy to scary when you consider the real beliefs behind this woman’s motive.  The movie will shock you and break your heart when you see how black maids and black society as a whole was treated before Civil Rights, something we all know about but a whole other matter so see so vividly on the big screen. 

Bryce Dallas Howard

This movie is well worth seeing and despite it’s very serious subject matter is full of so much humor and wonderful moments between it’s three leading ladies, led by Spencer’s Milly and some scene-stealing moments by Sissy Spacek as Hilly’s mother. Also notable are Allison Janney as Skeeter’s mother and lovely as ever, Cicely Tyson as Skeeters beloved maid. 

My only criticism is the length. At 146 minutes it felt at times a bit long. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the movie wanted to be so true to the novel – the subplot of Skeeter’s brief romance with a southern suitor (Chris Lowell) who dumps her once he finds out the book will be published and what it could do to his name and reputation feels tagged on.  With only four or five scenes in the entire movie, it seemed to be mainly kept in the movie to have some male presence in a heavily female cast. 

The movie getting made is a true testament of friendship, as Tate Taylor supported his friend and author, Kathryn Stockett to never give up her dream even after publishers rejected the manuscript more than 60 times.   Friends since the age of five, Taylor and Stockett both grew up in Jackson just a decade after the events that shaped this story took place.  A sure reason why Taylor, an actor/director with a short and inconsequetial directing resume got the film rights and started adapting it before the novel even came out.  Hollywood will stand up and take notice of him now. A must see movie for sure.    

NOTE – stay for the credits, a highlight of the movie is the song Mary J. Blige wrote for it. 

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To see more about this movie, watch this trailer as told by the director and actors: