DreamWorks/Walt Disney
This faithful adaptation of first-time author Kathryn Stockett’s novel of black maids working in white middle class households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the civil rights era of the 1960s will please audiences and readers alike. It lacks the slickness of a big Hollywood production and its sentimentality is justified by its authenticity. This is due to the book being rejected by 60 literary agents, spurring Stockett to entrust the film rights ahead of publication to a close friend, Tate Taylor, who had never made a feature. He thought a low-budget production might generate interest in the book. Instead it became an instant bestseller on eventual publication in 2009 and Taylor finally got studio backing for expensive location filming. His lack of experience tells in the handling of some scenes and plot lines. But the mainly female cast is excellent, with Emma Stone (Crazy, stupid love) holding everything together as an aspiring writer transcribing the experiences of the “help” in a strictly segregated society. N.G.
Rating, Mature audiences (adult themes); 124 minutes.