The Help (2011)

Plot: In 1963 Mississippi, a white society girl turns everyone's lives upside down when she interviews the black maids/nannies working for prominent families.

Pros: Acting by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.  Houses lovely to look at
Cons: Predictable story and characters, Direction, Black characters given too little screen time

A dumb chick flick movie about segregation, black maids, and their white bosses in 1963 Mississippi. While Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are excellent as the black maids, (if only the movie had been just about them!) the main focus is on the white actresses, especially our heroine "Skeeter" (Emma Stone). Everyone is a predictable caricature; the snobby cold-hearted racist, the pure-at-heart heroine who KNOWS racism is wrong, the over-controlling boyfriend who's put in his place, etc.

 Another variation on the great boomer morality play where we get to boo the evil white segregationists, cheer the noble (mostly) underdog blacks, and identify with our plucky, white, proto-feminist, liberal heroine. The direction adds to the air of unreality by making 1963 Mississippi so colorful, bright, and clean it seems like Disneyland. Are white liberals ever going to tire of revisiting those great wonderful days of Segregation? I hope so. Of course, I'm not the target audience for the film and only saw it as a favor. Rating **