Story, cast make 'Help' one of year's best

No, the white girl is not the heroine of "The Help." Only the catalyst.

No, the movie does not pull punches in how it depicts racism in the deep South in 1963. Separate but equal is proudly championed, to the point that some Junior League housewives have separate home toilets for their maids.

Yes, "The Help" has a sense of humor to match the strong dramatic theme.

Yes, a white woman, Kathryn Stockett, wrote this story of black housemaids who risk their lives by secretly telling an aspiring white writer, Skeeter (Emma Stone), the stories of their relationships with the white families they serve.

Yes, Stockett told this story from the viewpoint of a black maid, Aibileen (Viola Davis), who is the first to confide in the white girl.

Still, think twice before you dismiss this movie, or Stockett's best-selling novel on which it's based, because you think a white author can't possibly get a black woman's story right. It's one of the year's best movies so far.

Virtually unknown director-screenwriter Tate Taylor is a childhood friend of Stockett's, and he's done a bang-up job of adapting the book, capturing the tenor of a specific time and place, and pulling terrific performances from his talented cast.

Davis, an Oscar nominee for "Doubt," is just about perfect as Aibileen, the quiet, brokenhearted maid of one of Skeeter's childhood friends. Aibileen has a bitter secret that makes her want to trust Skeeter.

Stone ("Easy A," "Crazy, Stupid, Love") seems born to play spirited Skeeter, who returns to Jackson, Miss., after college graduation because her mother (Allison Janney) is very ill. Skeeter can't fit into the Junior League crowd because she's not married, doesn't like the South's old ways and isn't afraid to say so.

And she won't kowtow to the meanest, most racist Junior Leaguer of all, Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), who bullies others to tow the line and barely tolerates her slightly dotty mother (Sissy Spacek).

A personal favorite is Octavia Spencer as Minny, who hates working for Hilly but keeps her job to appease a wife-beating husband. Minny is as spirited as Aibileen is broken, and Spencer uses that to great comedic effect.

Also good: Jessica Chastain ("The Tree of Life") as an outcast trying to break into the social circle. But she won't be forgiven for marrying Hilly's ex-boyfriend.

And it's a pleasure to see Cicely Tyson ("Sounder," "Roots") as the maid who raised Skeeter, and whose disappearance is a mystery Skeeter is determined to solve.

Maybe I'm so starved for a summer movie with substance that "The Help" seemed better than it is. No doubt it's a painful chapter of history to revisit. Some may find it too sentimental, or too melodramatic, or just too long.

Not me. Fully realized characters and a compelling story made this the fastest 2 hours and 17 minutes I've spent in a theater in months. "The Help" is a movie I want to see again, one that deserves remembering at Oscar time.

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