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The Help
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Touchstone Pictures Review written by and copyright: Andy James & Noor Razzak (30th January 2012). |
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The Film
 It's fairly obvious, but I'm just going to go ahead and state it upfront anyway: I am a white, middle-class male who grew up in New Zealand suburbia. I have never experienced racism first hand and my knowledge of 1960's America is limited to what I have learned from pop culture (my own historical proclivities tend towards the ancient). And through that (largely white male dominated) pop culture I have learned that minorities always need the help of a kindly white person to rise up and overthrow/stand up to the prevailing social hierarchy. Just look at the cinema of Edward Zwick who is the most recent purveyor of this kind of condescending film-making. Hollywood doesn't seem comfortable, or at least thinks audiences wouldn't be comfortable, with heroic minority lead characters. There's far more to be written (and has been) on the representation of African-Americans and Hispanics in American media and pop culture; far more than can be encapsulated within a movie review. "The Help" is one of the least egregiousness examples of this type of filmmaking; the maid characters of Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer) wrestle as much of the film away from the limp protagonist of Skeeter (Emma Stone) as they can, forcing the focus onto them by dint of their performances and stories. Skeeter is a newly graduated journalism student, newly returned to Jackson, Mississippi and all hot and bothered to start writing something life changing and full of meaning. Instead, due to prevailing social attitudes of the time (and the fact that she is newly graduated with zero professional experience behind her) she is assigned the cleaning advice column of her hometown rag. Through needing cleaning advice of her own, Skeeter begins interviewing her friend's maid Aibileen. But she very quickly (immediately, essentially) uses the cleaning questions as a cover for interviewing Aibileen on what its really like to be a maid and raise white children, even at the cost of raising her own. These are the days of Jim Crow segregation and on the cusp of the Civil Rights movement; their interviews have to be in secret and, at first, Aibileen is the only woman willing to talk. There is the possibility of very real danger that is never fully exploited. The only real danger and villain of the piece is the racist and bitchy Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard), the queen bee of Skeeter's society circle. She is a deeply racist character, convinced of the lower nature of African-Americans and works to have separate outhouses for the maids installed in each house, to halt "their" diseases from spreading to whites. Hilly fires her longtime maid Minny when the woman dares to use the inside bathroom during a storm. Minny, all sass and with a large brood of children, ends up working for the socially shunned Celia (Jessica Chastain) and their times together actually provide some of the strongest moments in the film. Celia is a bundle of joyous nerves, with no idea of how to cook or maintain a household and with something of a white trash vibe about her. Despite, or perhaps because of this, she is more grateful than superior to Minny. It becomes a case of the maid trying to tell her mistress how things are supposed to run and, essentially, taking the woman under her wing. These two have a couple of powerful scenes between them and are more engaging than most. It's a shame about the supposed lead character, Skeeter, then. Stone does her charismatic best to bring life to her, but crusading writer is barely more than a thinly sketched author surrogate. There's a mildly intriguing subplot with the mysterious firing of her family's much loved maid but a subplot with a boyfriend (all three scenes of it) are fairly forgettable and add nothing to the film but running time. This leaves the majority of the last half to stand with Aibileen and Minny; which is all for the better even if it initially feels uneven. Davis is powerful as the maid who gives all her love to the white children she raises and Spencer has deft comic timing in her role of the "sassy best friend" (and pie comeuppance giving) Minny. Howard and Chastain dive into their roles of villain and ditz with vigor. Howard seems to be enjoying the challenge of playing unsympathetic characters at the moment and it was a joy to see Chastain with more to do than appear ethereal and angelic ("Tree of Life" (2011)). But all this great character work by an ensemble of strong female actors is in service to a film that feels over-egged and dramatically limp. The entirety of this well-meaning drama made little emotional connection to me. It aimed for too much, perhaps, and felt a little forced at times. It is a decent enough film, I just felt that there was more to be discovered; harsher truths to be felt and a wider world to be seen. But then I am likely looking at the film through a different lens - this is no "Malcolm X" (1992) but a light, almost feel-good drama. Fairly smart, if middlebrow and nonthreatening, as expected we've heard more from "The Help" now that it's Oscar time. Especially when it comes to the acting nominations.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 mastered in HD 1080p 24/fps using AVC MPEG-4 compression codec. The first impression viewers will get from this transfer is how colorful and bright it is, the colors are warm and feel natural to the setting. Skin tones are solid and natural, contrast looks great and detail and textures hold up real well right down to the sweaty faces of these characters. Background depth looks solid, grain is light and there are no compression related issues that I could spot. Overall it's a decent picture that remains consistent throughout.
Audio
Four audio tracks are included in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, French, Russian and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS-HD audio track. The film is mostly dialogue driven with some score elements, don't expect too much in terms of action or complexity in the mix. The mix serves the film well, keeping dialogue front heavy, clear and clean from distortion. The film's score adds that additional dimension that warrants a 5.1 sound space, with natural ambient sounds that also add to the immersiveness of the film. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French, Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian.
Extras
Buena Vista has included some extras that feature two featurettes, five deleted scenes, a music video, some bonus trailers and a second disc that features a DVD copy of the film as well. Below is a closer look at these supplements. DISC ONE: BLU-RAY First up is "The Making of The Help: From Friendship to Film" (1080p) featurette which runs for 23 minutes 25 seconds, this takes a decent look at the production and features interviews with key cast and crew personell and expands on the usual EPK fluff, however we don't really delve into the actual shooting of the film, but instead focuses on the story elements and themes of the film. It's worth checking out if only once. "In Their Own Words: A Tribute to the Maids of Mississippi" (1080p) is a featurette that runs for 11 minutes 51 seconds, the lead actresses of the film talk with some of the real life maids that inspired the book which in turn inspired the film. It's brief and not too self-congratulatory. Next up are a series of five deleted scenes (1080p) with introductions by director Tate Taylor, these scenes can be viewed individually or with a 'play all' option, these scenes include: - "A senator's son" runs for 2 minutes 11 seconds, Stuart apologizes to Skeeter about the bad first date. - "Humiliated" runs for 2 minutes 2 seconds, Skeeter is outcast from the Junior League. - "Johnny's home" runs for 1 minute 46 seconds, Celia tells Minny to defend herself, later Johnny comes home with flowers. - "A book about Jackson" runs for 1 minute 4 seconds, the maids are worried about the ramifications of what they've done. - "Keep on walkin'" runs for 2 minutes 5 seconds, Minny takes the kids and leaves Leroy, she calls Aibileen who tells her to keep on walkin'. The disc also feature "The Living Proof" (1080p), a music video by Mary J. Blige which runs for 5 minutes 9 seconds, it's not my thing but some people might like this song. The disc rounds out its extras with a series of bonus trailers (1080p) for: - "War Horse" which runs for 2 minutes 4 seconds. - "Real Steel" which runs for 1 minute 9 seconds. - "Truth" anti-tobacco spot which runs for 32 seconds. - "ABC shows on DVD" spot which runs for 1 minute 22 seconds. DISC TWO: DVD This is a DVD copy of the film.
Packaging
Packaged in a 2-disc keep-case housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
The film review was originally published on the blog Rockets and Robots are Go! by Andy James. The A/V and supplements were reviewed by Noor Razzak.
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