The Help

2011 · 146 min · dir. Tate Taylor

The Help is a 2011 period drama film written and directed by Tate Taylor, and based on Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast, including Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, Cicely Tyson, and Sissy Spacek. The film and novel recount the story of a young white woman and aspiring journalist Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan. The story focuses on her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, during the civil rights movement in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. In an attempt to become a legitimate journalist and writer, Skeeter decides to write a book from the point of view of the maids, exposing the racism and discrimination they face as they work for white families. Black domestic workers in 1960s United States were referred to as "the help", hence the eponymous title of the journalistic exposé, the novel, and the film. Synopsis from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.