Help

Theatrical Release Date: 2011 08 10 (USA)

UPC: 786936814309

Studio: Touchstone/Disney

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:null

Summary: A 1960s-era Mississippi debutante sends her community into an uproar by conducting a series of probing interviews with the black servants behind some of her community's most prominent families. Skeeter (Emma Stone) has just graduated from college, and she's eager to launch her career as a writer. In a moment of inspiration, Skeeter decides to focus her attention on the black female servants who work in her community. Her first subject is Aibileen (Viola Davis), the devoted housekeeper who has been employed by Skeeter's best friend's family for years. By speaking with Aibileen, Skeeter becomes an object of scorn to the wealthy locals, who view her actions as directly challenging to the established social order. Before long, even more servants are coming forward to tell their stories, and Skeeter discovers that friendship can blossom under the most unlikely of circumstances. Bryce Dallas Howard co-stars in a touching tale of race relations based on author Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel of the same name. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Supporting Actress – New York Film Critics Circle Best Ensemble – National Board of Review Best Actress – Detroit Film Critics Society Breakthrough Performer – New York Film Critics Online Best Supporting Actress – L.A. Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Detroit Film Critics Society Best Ensemble – Detroit Film Critics Society Top Ten Film of the Year – New York Film Critics Online Best Acting Ensemble – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Song – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Picture – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Actress – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Adapted Screenplay – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Costume Design – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Song – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Song – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Supporting Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Actress - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Supporting Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Adapted Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Breakthrough Performance – Detroit Film Critics Society Best Adapted Screenplay – Writers Guild of America Best Picture – Producers Guild of America Best Art Direction in a Period Film – Art Directors Guild Best Supporting Actress – National Society of Film Critics Best Picture – Producers Guild of America Best Picture – Producers Guild of America Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Picture – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Supporting Actress – Screen Actors Guild Best Actress – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild

Features: Deleted scenes
Mary J. Blige's "The Living Proof" music video

Help

Format: DVD

Release Date: 12/06/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 146 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Help
1. The Help [9:39]
2. Bridge Club [8:13]
3. Skeeter [8:06]
4. The Storm [7:41]
5. Courage [12:22]
6. Minny's New Job [6:53]
7. Not Good Enough [11:12]
8. Separate, But Equal [15:36]
9. More Stories [7:17]
10. Terrible Awful [4:06]
11. Benefit Dinner [9:39]
12. One More Story [7:15]
13. The Book [7:03]
14. Thank You [8:29]
15. The Truth [9:02]
16. End Credits [5:44]

Alaina O'Connor

The civil rights melodrama The Help is based on Kathryn Stockett's popular novel of the same name. The story takes place in 1963 Jackson, MS, where Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) is a middle-aged black maid who recently lost her only son. From the opening moments of the film she explains that she's raised 17 white children in her lifetime -- the irony being that these children grow up and eventually disregard those who truly raised them. Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) is a black maid whose outspokenness has given her a reputation for being a difficult employee, and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone) is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating from college, only to find that her beloved childhood maid is gone and her mother won't give her a straight answer about what happened. Skeeter dreams of becoming a reporter and contacts Elaine Stein (Mary Steenburgen), a New York editor who isn't convinced of Skeeter's talent and instructs her to gain more experience before joining the big league. So Skeeter gets a job at the local newspaper writing a housecleaning column. But she sets her sights higher and pitches a book idea revolving around "the help" -- a collection of stories from a maid's perspective. She enlists Aibileen, who bravely agrees to tell her story to Skeeter, knowing that it could potentially put her life in danger. Skeeter's secret book project has fits and starts; the most challenging is a call for more maids to participate, and for Skeeter to tell the real story about her beloved nanny, Constantine (Cicely Tyson). As in the novel, the villain of the film is the vicious Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), who takes what almost seems like pleasure in seeing the help suffer. She leads a degrading "Home Help Sanitation Initiative," which requires Southern white homes to build what is essentially an outhouse for their help in order to maintain "sanitary" conditions. Much of the humor of the film comes from the give-and-take between Minny and Hilly, and when Skeeter's relationship with the maids becomes a little too familiar, Hilly, along with her circle of bridge-playing girlfriends, attempts to rein in her activism. The performances are uniformly excellent, especially from Davis and Spencer, who are the soul of the film, bringing their characters a dignity and fullness far beyond the novel, while Emma Stone is winning and comforting as the cute yet fiercely determined Skeeter, whose untamable curly hair is an all too blatant sign of her rebellious nature. Still, despite writer/director Tate Taylor's intimate knowledge of the novel (he's close friends with Stockett), he has trouble maintaining focus and bounces from one character to the next without regard to the overall story. While the bulk of the narrative revolves around Skeeter, Aibileen, and the book, there are several side plots -- a brush with romance in which Skeeter dates a handsome oil industry comer (Chris Lowell) and the story of Yule Mae (Aunjanue Ellis), a maid working for Hilly, who is refused the small loan she needs to help send her sons to college and is later arrested upon suspicion of theft -- that seem to be haphazardly thrown in without any regard to pacing or continuity, which works well in a novel but is difficult to translate to film. The supporting actors breathe life into the novel's characters, notably Allison Janney as Skeeter's socially timid mother, Sissy Spacek as Hilly's slightly addled mother, and Jessica Chastain as outsider Celia Foote, a bottle blond hated by Hilly's circle of friends. Overall, The Help is a poignant period piece that examines the unquestioned relationships of white socialites and their deferential black maids, and transforms an ugly period of American history into a hopeful future. ~ Alaina O'Connor, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Chris Columbus  Producer 
Thomas Newman  Composer (Music Score) 
Mark A. Radcliffe  Executive Producer 
Michael Barnathan  Producer 
Jeff Skoll  Executive Producer 
Tate Taylor  Director 
Tate Taylor  Executive Producer 
Tate Taylor  Screenwriter 
Nate Berkus  Executive Producer 
Brunson Green  Producer 
Jennifer Blum  Executive Producer 
Mohamed Khalef Al-Mazrouei  Executive Producer 
Dean Jones  Executive Producer 
Viola Davis  Actor 
Emma Stone  Actor 
Bryce Dallas Howard  Actor 
Octavia L. Spencer  Actor 
Jessica Chastain  Actor 
Ahna O'Reilly  Actor 
Allison Janney  Actor 
Anna Camp  Actor 
Eleanor Henry  Actor 
Emma Henry  Actor 
Chris Lowell  Actor 
Cicely Tyson  Actor 
Mike Vogel  Actor 
Sissy Spacek  Actor 
Brian Kerwin  Actor 
Wes Chatham  Actor 
Aunjanue Ellis  Actor 
Ted Welch  Actor 
Shane McRae  Actor 
Roslyn Ruff  Actor 
Tarra Riggs  Actor 
Leslie Jordan  Actor 
Mary Steenburgen  Actor 
Tiffany Brouwer  Actor 
Carol Lee  Actor 
Carol Sutton  Actor 
Millicent Bolton  Actor 
Ashley Johnson  Actor 
Ritchie Montgomery  Actor 

Country: USA