Movie Review: The Help

I saw "The Help," awhile ago, and it was meh.

i wanted it to be AWESOME. i'm all about women's empowerment, and this is womens' empowerment in EVERY sense of the word. and it's set in the early sixties. the costumes were to be to die for. and a friend of mine worked on it. i wanted it to ROCK because i was so excited that she got to be in it.

but it was meh.

the acting was pretty good. hands down, viola davis knocks it out of the park. but did you guys see her in the meh-film "Doubt," a couple years back? she has eight minutes of screen time and walks in and out with a mission and purpose, totally steamrolling all of meryl streep's lauded performance (which is always too contrived for me, anyway.)

so, viola davis, amazing.

octavia spencer, duh.

emma stone, not so much. she's good, but she doesn't sparkle. i like my movie star idols to sparkle, and i reallllly missed it from her in this one. she looks like she was toned down, that it was a directing choice. anyway, she's one-dimensional in the movie--she exists only to write this danged book, and not much more. she doesn't even help with any comeuppance or take a stand on her work, her personal experiences, or her relationships. they all just kind of happen. so, forgettable, unfortunately.

jessica chastain was unbelievable. she's got a ton of movies coming out right now, including "The Tree of Life," with Sean Penn and Brad Pitt. She tooooootally deserves it. she's aaaammmaazzziiinngg, with a giant smile and a big, bright heart. So beautiful. So perfect.

dallas bryce howard plays hilly holbrook, a crazy, evil bitch that makes me really want to scrape my eyeballs out and scratch her face off. dallas plays her effortlessly, but, ultimately, there's no matching force to hilly holbrook in the very delicate balance of a film. she's so so so mean and evil, and there isn't anyone who can put her in her place. a couple of characters attempt it (the mom, aibileen,) but it really isn't entirely satisfying or successful to the audience.

we really just need one really good catfight where she gets slapped. it would totally be worth it.