Fresh
Yes, it gets a bit sentimental. Yes, some 'Ya-Ya Sisterhood' friendship cliches creep in. Yes, it glosses history. But it's also heartfelt, hilarious and the cast is a dream-team topped by Viola Davis.
Cath Clarke, Time Out
Overview
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.
Director and cast
- Tate Taylor Director
- Emma Stone as Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan
- Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark
- Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson
- Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly Holbrook
- Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote
- Mike Vogel as Johnny Foote
- Allison Janney as Charlotte Phelan
- Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters
- Chris Lowell as Stuart Whitworth
- Ahna O'Reilly as Elizabeth Leefolt
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
75%
Tomatometer
Rotten
"The Help" takes us on a pop-cultural tour that savors the picturesque, and strengthens stereotypes it purports to shatter.
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
Fresh
Thanks to a talented cast -- starting with leads Emma Stone, Viola Davis​ and Octavia Spencer​ -- the movie is often entertaining. But The Help should have been challenging too.
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
Rotten
As in many reductive period pieces, there are no real characters here, just archetypes, namely reactionary cretins and sensitive souls who anticipate modern attitudes.
Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader
Rotten
The Help is a high-functioning tearjerker, but the catharsis it offers feels glib and insufficient, a Barbie Band-Aid on the still-raw wound of race relations in America.
Dana Stevens, Slate
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