Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES I & II • August 24, 2011 ‘The Help’ highlights well-drawn characters and plot by Dennis Seuling “The Help” takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s, when the only employment a black woman could obtain was as a domestic for the city’s affluent white families. The time is at the cusp of the civil rights movement and the South is still very much a separatist place. Housing, social interaction, public dining establishments, and even religious services were all strictly segregated, and many of the maids were forbidden to use the toilets in their employers’ homes. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone), a privileged white girl, is fresh out of Old Miss with aspirations of becoming a journalist. She wants to write an article on the black maids who do the cooking, cleaning, shopping, and child rearing for the elegant women of Jackson. But she comes up against a wall of silence, as the maids fear losing their jobs if they reveal the abuses and indignities to which their employers subject them. Finally, Aibileen (Viola Davis) agrees to speak with Skeeter, but only if her real name is not used and their meetings are conducted where no one will see them and wonder why a white woman is spending so much time with a black domestic. “The Help,” based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett, is a rich film with a collection of vivid characters headed by Aibileen, a woman who knows fear and heartbreak yet displays amazing courage and risks much to let the world know what her world is really like behind the requisite smiles and “Yes, ma’ams.” Davis, one of cinema’s treasures who consistently turns in indelible performances, adds another feather to her cap as Aibileen. It’s incredible how this actress immerses herself in her roles and manages to look old, worn, and ordinary. In the recent revival of “Fences” on Broadway, she looked plain and shabby as the role demanded. But when she emerged from the stage door, she had transformed into a trim, attractive, fashionable young woman with a radiant smile. In “The Help,” she breaks the viewer’s heart, elicits laughs, and makes one marvel at a simple woman’s inner strength to come forward when so many others stand back, accepting an unjust social status quo. Aibileen’s best friend, Minny (Olivia Spencer), is more outspoken than Aibileen and suffers for it when her employer, Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), the town’s queen bee, fires and blacklists her. Minny winds up working for social pariah Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), wife of Miss Hilly’s former boyfriend. Minny and Celia find each other at just the right time. Celia is lonely and knows little about managing a home; Minny is out of work. The two become a team: a couple of outcasts who both owe their troubles to the same person. Skeeter (Emma Stone), Minny (Olivia Spencer), and Aibileen (Viola Davis) in ‘The Help.’ Stone’s Skeeter comes across as part tomboy and part questioning adult. She was raised by a black woman and enjoyed a world of privilege and comfort provided by black servants. Now, she sees and hears things that make her question a way of life that seems unfair and cruel to fellow human beings who don’t share her skin hue. Skeeter can tool around in a Cadillac convertible, listen as the black maids pour out their stories, and verbally joust with a drunk but socially acceptable Southern “gentleman” with equal facility. Though she may not have as much to lose as the black maids by publishing their stories, she risks social ostracism and perhaps violence. Howard’s Hilly suffers in comparison to the more richly drawn portraits of Aibileen and Olivia. She is a spoiled, (continued on Crossword page)