The Help (2011)

It was certainly fun/entertaining to watch, but come on...it’s not really that great of a movie.  It's basically an emotional button-pusher that works for those who want those buttons pushed.  I didn't mind it, but the manipulation was so blatant that there was no way to give myself over to it without feeling like a willing dupe.

Part of the problem was that we never got past the surface of the many, many characters.  The flashback with our heroine Skeeter and her aged maid comforting her when not asked to a school dance wasn't touching -- it just felt inconsequential and random.  I had the same feeling when Skeeter's (fairly new) boyfriend took off.  We’d barely gotten to know him before he dumps her for the very thing that drew him to her in the first place.

The only storyline that I was even the least bit interested in was the one that had Jessica Chastain's new bride being shunned by society.  The problem is that it showed that the Jackson women were cold to ANYONE outside of their circle, color be damned.  These women were bitches, straight up.

Just kind of all over the place and in desperate need of focus.

B-