Sandell and Josh review: The Help

This is the audio portion of our review. Run time is approximately 17 min

Sandell Stangl: Wow! So, it feels weird going to see a movie that I'm pretty sure will impress me. It seems like nowadays I go see a movie with the thought "Well, as long as it will entertain me" and then later cry myself to sleep that night...

Sandell Stangl: And I was impressed with this movie.

Joshua Efron: What impressed you about it?

Sandell Stangl: The way that those characters were portrayed.

Sandell Stangl: And what I mean is, I felt like they had strong personalities that were used in a best way possible by the actors.

Sandell Stangl: Did anything stand out to you in this film?

Joshua Efron: Well, you brought up the element that I felt made "The Help" successful, which was the performances.

Joshua Efron: Don't get me wrong, there's some good content to the movie.  It's well written (although as an adaptation of a book it has its inevitable difficulties) and technically adept, but what elevated the movie from a good movie to an Impressive movie was the performances.

Joshua Efron: All the primaries and primary supporters did a Good job - Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Octavia Spencer as the leads all did great jobs, as did Ahna O'Reilly and Allison Janney as two of the supporting actors (as did all the others I'm not naming) - but the movie was really owned by Jessica Chastain as a supporting character and Bryce Dallas Howard as Emma Stone's and the movie's primary antagonist.

Joshua Efron: Bryce was so good that her moments on screen were almost physically painful to watch.

Joshua Efron: One thing that makes reviewing this movie somewhat difficult for me is that I watched an early test screening of the film about a year ago, and so seeing it this week was not a complete refresher, as some of my impressions had already been generated with the early (and different) viewing. 
Joshua Efron:  I believe some material with Howard and Chastain's characters were cut from the final theatrical version. This is fortunate for the film in that it helps it retain some of the film's already divided focus.  It's unfortunate for the film in that the other material with Chastain and Howard made their performances that much more amazing.  I mean, their performances were so strong that they were distracting from the story in the test-screening version I originally saw.  I hope they include the cut content on the DVD.

Sandell Stangl: Good god!
Sandell Stangl: There was more content?!

Sandell Stangl: That was my only complaint about this movie. It was sooooo long.

Joshua Efron: The final cut was only 2:15 long!

Joshua Efron: That's nothing!

Sandell Stangl: It felt longer for some reason...

Joshua Efron: I that's one of the difficulties limiting the films quality - as an adaption from a book, it feels like there are things missing and needs to be able to be longer, but still feels long already.  To some people anyway.

Joshua Efron: The film is about black maids/nannies/pretty much everything else working for white families in the 60's, and one of main elements is how these women are the primary caretaker - entirely the mother figure in one case - to these white children who will then grow up to be their new bosses (which is mirrored in the character played by Emma Stone by her having been raised by a black nanny).  Although this is a primary, arguably, the primary emotional line through the film, it isn't given nearly as much attention as it deserves.

Joshua Efron: The film was good but was limited by the natural challenges imposed on it by being an adaption of a complex book.  We had three leads who interacted but whose largely and often separate, we had Celia Foote (Chastain) who functioned as a fourth half-lead, we had Hilly Holbrook (Howard) who needed and was given large amounts of screen time as well - and we had the maternal figure issue, the prejudice issue, the active civil rights activities, the social aspects of the white female leads, the work on the book the leads were conspiring to write, and the domestic lives of maids as well.

Joshua Efron: There were so many things going on that the film was limited by how divided its attention was required to be.  I'm not necessarily saying it should have made different choices - this may be as good as a close adaption of this book could be - and it certainly was still a good film.  But it was naturally limited by its own circumstances from being better.

Sandell Stangl: It did feel like way too much was going on. Is that really the fault of the screenwriter or do you think that this movie was done in the best way that it could have been?

Joshua Efron: I haven't read the book so it's difficult to say, but, having seen some of the things they cut (which were also good) and understanding the reasons they made the choices they made, I believe the movie was in good hands.

Joshua Efron: Specifically Tate Taylor's hands who both adapted the screenplay and then directed the film.

Joshua Efron: Good job Tate.

Sandell Stangl: Well at least the movie wasn't like "Rosewood" which made me feel bad for being white...

Joshua Efron: The Help didn't delve as deeply into "heavy racism" as it could have.  We mostly just saw "stupid ignorant bitchyness" as opposed to, say, mass murder as did Rosewood.

Sandell Stangl: That's very true...

Joshua Efron:  The story would have been overshadowed by any stronger violence than it contained.  I think one of the reasons the movie (and presumably the book before it) worked was it kept the stakes for these characters serious but short of life-or-death, just as it also remained focused on the limited issues involved in these characters' lives rather than confronting racism or intolerance as a larger topic.

Sandell Stangl: Who would you recommend this movie to Josh?

Joshua Efron:  One strength of the movie is its ease of viewing.  It tells a story reflecting on true relationships of difficult importance without being emotionally difficult to watch, making it viewable by nearly any person in nearly any mood.  That's a uncommon and impressive achievement.  I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't an *** ****.

Sandell Stangl: Well, that's all the time we have for today. We'll see you guys next week!