Monday Morning Talkback: Let's Hear About The Help
Rise of the Planet of the Apes may have won the box office for a second weekend in a row, but The Help was the real story: perfect Cinemascore marks, strong opening weekend earnings, Oscar buzz and some major controversy. As the summer movie season winds to a close, this could be the one film you're still talking about come Thanksgiving. So! Let's talk about it!
Topics up for discussion:
· Did you think The Help was racist -- that it perpetuated the white savior myth in a way that was similar to The Blind Side? Or do you think all the controversy surrounding the Kathryn Stockett novel, and now the film, was overblown?
· Onscreen, do you think that Viola Davis should be nominated for an Oscar for her work as Aibileen? Along those lines, would you like to see her in the Best Actress category or Best Supporting Actress category? What other stars do you think could garner Oscar buzz?
· How much money do you think The Help could wind up earning? Do you think it'll top out at $80 million domestic or push well past $100 million with strong word of mouth and little competition over the next month?
· Now that you've seen her in Friends with Benefits, Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Help, what Emma Stone performance from this summer was your favorite? Has she earned the status of Hollywood's current favorite It-Girl?
And more! Leave your thoughts on those subjects -- and whatever else The Help made you want to talk about -- in the comments section below.
[Photo: DreamWorks, LLC/Dale Robinette]
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Comments
While I wouldn't say it is overtly racist, I do think 'The Help' does indeed perpetuate the white savior myth. Salon.com had an excellent article on it. I could summarize it but I think Matt Zoller Seitz says it better than I ever could.
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/08/12/why_hollywood_keeps_white_washing_the_past
It's not racist nor was it intended or should be inferred to be. It is what it was in that era. The movie nor the book are probably hard to digest or relate to for those who didn't live or understand the demographic or times, black, white or inbetween. And those times they are thankfully a "changin" or have done as Dylan said during my coming of age in the 60s. Of course, there are academics and journalists who can blah blah blah about it all day long but that is what that is, a lot of blah, blah. It was sad, funny and regrettably real. That a Southern white girl wrote it doesn't automatically make it racist.
I came here to post the same comment, because I think Seitz really capture it beautifully.
I really enjoyed the first half, but once Hilly became such an overbearing villian, it lost perspective and became less about institutional racism than about a bunch of mean girls. And by confining the means girls so squarely into the past, it made it easier for audiences to say, "Thank God I'm not like that!!"
The movie is entertaining, it's well acted, and it moves fairly quickly, but I am not sure I am entirely comfortable with a movie centered around civil and personal rights which turns into a veritable onslaught of poop jokes.
I think it also does disservice to the truly deleterious effects of racism, that one needn't be an evil shrew to be racist. Racism persists because otherwise decent people perpetuate it. Reducing racists to a bunch of cartoon clowns is, to me, the lowest form of insult to those who had to endure it.
Stone's problem is that Skeeter isn't a very dynamic character (in the book or in the movie). The stakes aren't very high for her. If her book isn't published, what's the downside for her? Will she starve? Never find another job? Be out on the street? There are much more compelling characters in the story and the women playing them outshine Stone. She and Gosling made the wretched CSL bearable.
Wretched Crazy Stupid Love??? Drop the crackpipe!