This may not be a new book or movie and you all may have read and/or seen it already, but I just felt like I had to write my review. If you haven’t seen and/or read it, you should and I’m telling you now that there will be some spoilers in this review so proceed with that in mind.
I usually read the book before seeing the film adaptation, but this time I reversed the order and the story line is so well written that it was still every bit as exciting and frustrating even though I already knew the basic outcome of each of the characters. There were some pretty big plot twists that didn’t make it into the movie, but for the most part this film is as close to being a perfect adaptation as you can get and much of the dialog is taken verbatim from the book.
One of the main differences (and there really were only a few) was the back story of Stuart that we read in the book but don’t see in the movie. That back story with who his father is and what happened with his fiancee kind of redeems his character and makes his actions understandable, whether or not one agrees with his view on the state of things in Jackson. It actually redeemed his character so much that I more than half expected him to show back up at the end of the book. In fact, I wanted him to. I wanted Skeeter to either wind up with Stuart or Robert in the book or Henry in the movie. Either scenario would have made me happy, but as the song goes “you can’t always get what you want”.
Out of all the great characters, my favorite by far is Celia Rae Foote. She is such a lovable character. With her ignorance of the Jackson Junior League’s politics and almost child-like naivete of the social workings in the community, it’s very hard not to root for her especially after she comes to Minny’s rescue during an extremely dangerous encounter in the book. Then when you learn her secret, it just breaks your heart. Finally, when she wrote “Two Slice Hilly” on that check I wanted to literally stand up and cheer, that was the point that cemented her in as my favorite character in The Help. Plus, the way Jessica Chastain brought her to life in the movie was just perfect.
The acting in the film was phenomenal and the casting wasn’t EXACT to the book, but they still did a great job with it. Bryce Dallas Howard’s portrayal was so good, it made me want to go find Hilly Holbrook and punch her right in the face and then offer her another slice of chocolate pie (BDH is an amazing actress and has actually played a few characters I wanted to punch, but I also enjoyed her in movies like “The Village”). Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis were PERFECT as Minny and Aibileen. And who doesn’t like Emma Stone? The characters are ALL portrayed in such a fantastic way that it really makes them come to life.
To say I love this book and movie would be a huge understatement. This is the closest film adaptation of a book I’ve ever seen. The book is amazingly well written and the award nominations/wins for the film were VERY well deserved. Everyone should go read this book and watch this movie and then pass it on to everyone they know.
