FILM REVIEW: THE HELP

DreamWorks

Now Showing

It's 2011 and race is still as contentious an issue as ever. How then to approach a film, based on book by a white woman (Kathryn Stockett) about a white woman writing about the 'black experience' during the United States' turbulent civil rights era? Indeed, your approach will most likely determine how much - or little - you enjoy The Help.

Upon graduating from the University of Mississippi, Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone, bearing an unfortunate resemblance to Lindsay Lohan) hopes to become a journalist or a novelist. Or both. But in the meantime, she lands a job writing the cleaning advice column for the local paper in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi.

Writing, or work for that matter, is anathema to Skeeter's friends; Bridge-playing, Southern sisters led by Queen Bee, Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), who tolerate Skeeter's independence much as her mother (Alison Janney) does: as a passing phase which will be cured by the love of a good man. It's 1963, after all.

It's this time and place which makes Skeeter's idea - of writing a warts-and-all book about life from the point of view of 'the help' - so daring. It also makes the involvement of Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), a woman who has worn a maid's uniform since her early teens, raising umpteen white babies and keeping house for their parents, so brave.

With America's Civil Rights movement reaching fever pitch, Aibileen seems to have reached breaking point. Not in a "I'm as mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it any more" kind of way, but in a quietly angry rebuke of the status quo. And Davis gives a commanding performance just as Aibileen's story commands our attention. Emma Stone may be the "star" of The Help, but it's very much Viola Davis's film.

Runner-up honours go to Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson, the sassy-mouthed maid of Hilly and her mother (Sissy Spacek), who, after being fired for using the indoor bathroom, exacts a two-fold revenge: firstly by helping Skeeter and Aibileen with their literary project, and secondly by observing the adage that revenge is a dish best served cold - and in a pie.

Minny soon finds employment in the house of Celia Foote (a barely recognisable Jessica Chastain, channelling Marilyn Monroe), a woman shunned by Hilly's social circle and who doesn't subscribe to the traditional Southern employer-help paradigm.

Spencer's and Chastain's relationship provides much of the film's humour but one of the most heartbreaking scenes in The Help is when Minny, whilst between jobs, explains the do's and don'ts of being a maid to her eldest daughter, pulled from school and sent to work to help out with the family's finances.

Writer-director Tate Taylor does a solid job with his wonderful female ensemble and a heartfelt albeit borderline saccharine story. But at 136 minutes he could have easily lost 15 minutes (might I suggest Skeeter's romantic sub plot which goes nowhere?), and focussed more on Aibileen's and Minny's narratives.

But it's my understanding that the character of Aibileen has been fleshed out more so on the screen than the page; no doubt as a result of the prowess of Viola Davis. But I'd also suggest it's a deliberate attempt by Taylor to negate the inevitable criticism of The Help for being another of those films where a white person is responsible for empowering black people.

And in some ways Taylor's film inhabits that same 'feel good about being white' universe as The Blind Side, the 2009 film about a white woman giving hope to a young black man (and which won Sandra Bullock an undeserved Oscar). But The Help is better than that description implies and far better than that other, lesser film.

The Help may not be an important film but it's kind hearted and relatively smart, and worth seeing if for no other reason than Viola Davis.

FILM REVIEW: CHALET GIRL

Paramount Pictures
Now Showing

I've never been skiing and, what's more, have no desire to ever do so. That's probably because of my aversion to the cold. Don't get me wrong: if you want to invite me to the Austrian Alps for a winter weekend, please do. Just don't be disappointed when I take up residence by the chalet's open fire, indulging in hot chocolate and not once taking to the snowfields.

Kim (Felicity Jones) isn't one for the snow either; skateboarding has always been her thing with a trophy or two as a result. But when an opportunity arises to work a few months as a chalet girl (apparently a real job, although just a fancy term for maid) in the Austrian Alps, for a well-heeled family who visit only on weekends, she takes it.

This isn't so much to broaden her horizons but to help out her financially-strapped dad (Bill Bailey) who, following his wife's (and Kim's mum's) death, hasn't really been too concerned with everyday things like work and bills.

In Austria, Kim is teamed with veteran chalet girl, Georgie (Tamsin Egerton), who doesn't exactly take the newbie under her wing so much as attempt to keep her underfoot. But Kim's a do-it-my-way kinda girl, which might not impress Georgie but wins points with Jonny (Ed Westwick), the son of the family whose chalet it is.

He might be about to propose to his long term girlfriend (Sophia Bush), and mostly to fulfil the expectations of his mother (Brooke Shields; Bill Nighy plays the cool cat dad), but Jonny can't resist the down to earth charms of the help.

This Kim-Jonny relationship provoked a quiet niggle at the back of my mind throughout Chalet Girl, not so much because of the employer romantically fraternising with the employee scenario, but because of the age difference. Jonny must be at least 25, while Kim comes across as a teenager barely out of high school, if at all. And while there are no actual sex scenes, there is the definite suggestion of sex, which begs the question: just who is this PG rated film aimed at?

More pressing for Kim than her romantic entanglement, however, is overcoming her fear of heights (and her memory of her mother's car crash death) so she can compete in and win the annual ski jump tournament which boasts a $25,000 first prize.

Employing her skateboarding skills to the slopes, Kim (eventually) takes to her new sport like a polar bear to ice but will she overcome her fears? Will she qualify for the tournament's final round and, in doing so, take out first prize? Will she also win the heart of her rich (older) lover?

Snowflakes may be the predominant backdrop to Chalet Girl, but nothing about this British comedy, directed by Phil Traill and scripted by Tom Williams, is that unique. Except, perhaps, Felicity Jones. The pint-sized Jones has the same confident swagger as Ellen Page in 2007's Juno but unfortunately for her, doesn't have the sassy-mouthed writing of Diablo Cody to back her up.

As engaging as Jones may be (and word of mouth suggests she's even more so in the forthcoming Like Crazy), the humour of Chalet Girl falls as flat as Kim's early attempts at snowboarding.

FILM REVIEW: ONE DAY

Universal Pictures

Now Showing

The premise of One Day - two friends meeting, or not, on the same day every year over a 20 year period - is such an intriguing one that it's unfortunate that its execution on film, adapted from David Nicholls' novel, is not. And doubly disappointing given the involvement of Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, and director Lone Sherfig.

On the night of their university graduation, July 15 1988, Emma (Hathaway) and Dexter (Sturgess), by default rather than design, spend the night together. But by the time they make it to bed, the alcohol has warn off and the moment has passed, and the two decide they'll just be friends.

One Day then proceeds in its episodic nature of dropping in on the lives of Emma and Dexter on the same date every year: sometimes they are together, sometimes not. Dexter, who comes from money, is often on holiday in foreign locales, and later enjoying the spoils of his career as a TV celebrity. Emma, on the other hand, spends her first few years out of college working in a taco restaurant and dating a wannabe comedian, before commencing a teaching career, all the while transforming from geeky duckling to beautiful swan.

Hathaway and Sturgess are both appealing actors, but one of the major problems with the film is that Dexter is, for the most part, thoroughly unlikeable which makes Emma's devotion to him, which borders on doormat, both odd and unsympathetic.

And quibble though it may be, Hathaway's English accent is a distraction: which part of England is she from? Indeed we never learn anything of Emma's background, or meet any of her family, though we do meet Dexter's parents (played by Patricia Clarkson and Ken Stott), who are less than impressed with their son's directionless life.

Lone Scherfig's previous film was the wonderful An Education, a film readers of this blog will know I absolutely adore. Based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, An Education was adapted for the screen by novelist Nick Hornby who had the advantage of objectivity and no compunction about what to keep and what to cut.

One Day was adapted by Nicholls from his own novel, which I haven't read, but I'd suggest in his role as screenwriter he didn't have the necessary objectivity; less inclined to make major changes to his text and committing that fatal mistake of thinking everything that works on the page will work on screen.

It doesn't, and fans of the book, a New York Times bestseller, may not be as enamoured with One Day in its cinematic incarnation, making for a not-so memorable date (film).

DVD REVIEW: SECRETARIAT

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Available now to rent or own on DVD and Blu-ray

Much like the titular horse at the centre of this story - the 'Big Red' stallion who famously came from behind in his races to win more often than not and, most importantly [Spoiler Alert] the Triple Crown in 1973 - Secretariat takes a while to get going.

It's almost 25 minutes into the film before the horse is even born. That's in a stable of course, but that's not where the Messianic allusions end. A Biblical poem opens the film and 'O Happy Day' is recited more than once on the soundtrack, to drive home the idea that, while not exactly the Second Coming, Secretariat was a horse like no other, before or since.

Thankfully, director Randall Wallace's film is not as heavy going as a wet track and, for the most part, is a fully enganging story even though the ending is never in doubt (unless you've never heard of Secretariat, in which case I'd suggest you not read on).

With the passing of her mother, Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) returns to her family horse ranch to put things in order for her ailing father (Scott Glenn). The farm has racked up a mountain of debt but despite her husband (a lost Dylan Walsh) and brother's insistence to cut their losses and sell, Penny just can't let go of her childhood memories, nor the possibility that something great may yet still come of this place.

And it does. Big Red is born and soon becomes the horse on which Penny, her father's secretary Miss Ham (Margo Martindale), stablehand Eddie Sweat (Nelsan Ellis), and her newly intsalled trainer, the cantekerous, semi-retired French-Canadian, Lucien Lauren (John Malkovich), place their hopes and dreams. Like Penny, Lucien sees something special in the horse whose appetite for oats is matched only by his speed and desire to win.

Dean Semler's cinematography puts us right there on the horse's back as Secretariat and his jockey, Ronnie Turcotte (Otto Thorwarth), storm round the track, always coming from behind to not only pip their rivals at the post but often to humiliate them. And never more so than in the final race which sees Secretariat secure the Triple Crown, over a distance he had not raced before and was believed by all experts (but not his team) to be incapable of surmounting.

Apparently there is YouTube footage (and why wouldn't there be?) of Secretariat's races: proof positive that the stallion's speed was as claimed and not some Hollywood, feel good concoction. Not that that's not what Secretariat is. For all intents and purposes it is a sports movie, travailing the ups and downs of the team, overcoming insurmountable odds and proving the doubters wrong.

Lane is solid as the housewife who, in the role of racehorse owner, regains a passion for life she thought gone once she married and had children; and Malkovich is, as always, good value though his run of odd ball characters of late is beginning to wear thin.

While the ending is never in doubt, whether you know the ending or not, Secretariat is a more than enjoyable ride.