The Help (2011)

It's so hard for me to imagine a world where people actually treated other human beings this way.  Okay, I know that in some places on this planet such ignorance still exists.  I'm not that naive.  But while I watched this story unfold I kept shaking my head in disgust.  Yet at the same time watching a movie about white people learning the obvious, that racism is bad, is a little obtuse.  Still there are a lot of wonderful moments that skirt the line of sentimentality without crossing it.  Viola Davis is spectacular as is Octavia Spencer.  Actually the more I type this the more I realize how good the entire cast is.  Director Tate Taylor must have felt he'd died and gone to actor Heaven.  The only big flaw I can see is that a few of the villainesses are caricatures without much depth.  Sure these young white social queens are bitches but what if some of them were had been really nice, just brain washed as most of that part of the country was.   That would have said something about racism that's even more true, that it even inflicts good people.  I always say that a good movie that's based on a book is a commercial for the book.  In this case I must say, I would like to read the book now.  Grade: A-