| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
|
 Posted - 11/08/2011 : 15:40:13
|
Oscar alert! Bafta alert! Golden Globes alert!
You're gonna see Viola Davis knock off all the competition. Well, you'd better! As Mississippi maid Aibileen back in the Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs era of the early 1960s, Davis charms you in, serves you superbly, and then breaks your heart right down the middle.
Normally the cine audience in this 'hood are already putting on their coats as the credits roll. But everyone in this UK suburb had to sniff back their tears and take a bit of stock before taking a breath of autumn air. They were all sitting there till the teeniest-tiniest end. Me too.
The film itself is a triumph for screenwriter/director Tate Taylor, who adapted it from Kathryn Stockett's best-seller. Although he's acted in many films, most recently Winter's Bone, his comparative inexperience as a director belies his confidence. He's realised the need to leaven such a potent story with some laugh-out-loud scenes that not only heighten the drama, but lift it far away from cheap sentimentality. Which is tricky for something that could have crossed the line to soap opera.
Naturally, given his past career, he has a beady eye for the brilliant performances he gets from a generous and committed cast. They tell a pretty straightforward tale of local girl Emma Stone, still connected to her shallow peer group by their high school past.
But she's moved on, especially in her ambitions and expectations. These mostly have to do with journalism and writing books.
She'd be happier and possibly better off in some buzzing metropolis, but her mom's illness draws her back into family loyalty. She brings back an outsider's view of her former friends, who assume, like them, her world can only be complete with being a wife and mother, no matter what the day-to-day reality.
Maids are the glue that holds these families together. Stone's Skeeter, seeing through her new eyes, thinking with her new brain, conceives of an expose wherein the maid's side of the story gets heard.
And that's really all the film's about. Well, I say all. What I mean, of course, is ALL!!
Just remember to bring a box of tissues. No, better make that two boxes!
|
|
|
ChocolateLady 
"500 Chocolate Delights"
|
Posted - 11/09/2011 : 12:38:22
|
Well, well, well! And here I was dreading this film after loving the book (and yes, the tissues came out in full when I was reading it). Okay then, I guess I'll make a point of seeing it.
Thanks. |
 |
|
|
randall
"I like to watch."
|
Posted - 11/09/2011 : 22:35:55
|
| I can't wait to see this one, since I happened to live in Jackson, Mississippi during the time [as a lad, and without help, but still]. I enjoyed the book very much. Tate Taylor had better choose/accept his next project wisely. |
|
|
|
Sean 
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
|
Posted - 09/08/2012 : 02:51:58
|
Damn good. The acting in this is uniformly superb, no weak points. For a cast of B-listers and C-listers, the C-listers were certainly as good as the B-listers. You could have almost thrown around ten "best supporting actress" nominations at random.
9/10
|
|
|
|
randall
"I like to watch."
|
Posted - 09/09/2012 : 16:07:44
|
Forgot to reply before, but I did see it. The dice are loaded, as is often the case in stories like this, but then again they were in the novel too. I still think it's audacious for a privileged white girl to preach about this stuff -- IOW, there are plenty of black daughters of her age who could say, "You don't know the half of it, honey" -- but the movie was fairly spot-on, at least as well as a twelve-year-old can remember. The book-and-movie-propelling "story" is weak, but the underlying stories aren't. I really liked the flick, perhaps even more than I did the book. Less emotion required.
|
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
The Help
