‘The Help’

Just before I left Los Angeles, I joined my friend Emma at a nearby Cineplex to watch the movie “The Help,” mainly because we wanted some relief from the relentless heat, and also because I had heard so many good things about the film.

I am always drawn towards “women’s films,” movies that are dominated by women working as an ensemble. One appeal is that such movies are so rare, especially during the summer onslaught in the United States dominated by testosterone-fueled action films that seek a mainly male adolescent (in body and mind) audience. That “The Help” has appeared at all as part of the season line-up, and done so well, is remarkable and very welcome, indeed.

Based on the best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett, whose first literary effort this is, “The Help” tells the story of a community of women in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, at the height of the “Jim Crow” policy. Though officially emancipated, black Americans before the civil rights movement hardly did any better than in the days when they were “owned” by their masters and kept shackled in plantations. In the American South, especially, local laws and social customs kept blacks subordinate, with women kept from pursuing any other career or work than as domestic help.

When new college graduate Skeeter (Emma Stone) comes home, she finds the family’s old help, who virtually raised her, inexplicably gone, with no one offering any cogent explanation. Skeeter, a budding journalist, decides to write the story of Jackson’s women from the viewpoint of “the help,” the army of housemaids and nannies who keep the white women’s homes spic-and-span and running smoothly. She turns to Aibileen (Viola Davis), who has raised generations of white girls even as she recently lost her own son, to get an “in” on the black community, and eventually makes a connection as well with the feisty Minny (Octavia Spencer) whose sassy tongue often gets her into trouble.

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THE stories the women tell draw back the veil of civility and manners that passed for Southern gentility at the time.

Leading the pack of young housewives dependent on their help and fiercely defending their lifestyle is Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard), who disguises her malice and racism with Christian platitudes and patronizing meanness.

These are the days of the gathering storm of the civil rights movement, and it touches Jackson with the assassination of activist Medgar Evers. But in the supposedly placid world of white middle-class housewives and their black house help, hostility is tamped down and class differences are papered over with sweet talk and, sometimes, genuine affection between the help and their wards.

The story unfolds slowly and gently, but the building horror and abhorrence marches on inexorably. One contentious issue is Hilly’s campaign to pass a state ordinance requiring all homes to have a separate toilet for the black help, ostensibly to “protect” white children from unknown diseases carried by black people. Justice of a sort is dealt Hilly when Skeeter arranges to have commodes delivered to her front yard.

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MUCH has been said about the performance of Davis, who is described in some publications as “a star waiting for the right movie.” She entirely embodies Aibileen, with all her pride and dignity, hurt and fear. This is a case of an actor entirely subsuming herself to character, so that we see not Davis the award-winning actor but Aibileen, the middle-aged housekeeper and nanny struggling with the many indignities of Jim Crow society.

Indeed, “The Help” is entirely dominated by the black women portraying humble house help. Spencer enlivens the rather somber film with her sprightly presence, her quick ripostes, her sharp eyes and even sharper tongue. It is only right that the white actresses serve almost as background to the superlative acting of their black colleagues, an equalizing moment in the white-dominated history of Hollywood.

Indeed, playing a feature role as Skeeter’s old nanny is Cicely Tyson, who one remembers as a luminous, beautiful actress in the 1970s but who still endows her small role with dignity and soul.

One thing that could give added meaning to the message of “The Help” would be to see actors like Davis and Spencer get their due in roles that call attention to their outsize talents and in movies that do justice to their gifts. Already, I am happy to hear Oscar buzz for Davis based on her unforgettable portrayal of the redoubtable Aibileen.

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PHOTOGRAPHY buffs have a great opportunity to further hone their craft through an in-depth workshop aimed at “serious amateur photographers” looking at a career in freelance photography.

For five Saturdays, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., starting Sept. 24 up to Oct. 22, photographer Mandy Navasero will conduct workshops on various aspects of photography either in her studio or on field trips to Taal (for architectural photography) and Los Baños (for nature photography). Any one Saturday can be taken independently.

The two out-of-town trips will cost P3,000 per participant, with lunch and transportation, while the studio workshops cost P2,000.

Others who want more intensive sessions with Mandy may join her “Photo Safaris” to Batanes, Coron or Cebu-Dumaguete-Bohol later in the year.

Navasero is a graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara in California, and is a well-known photographer for both editorial and advertising projects. Contact her at 09155430482, 8991767, or 8963208 or e-mail [email protected] or better yet drop by her studio at Rm. 329, LRI Design Plaza, 210 Nicanor Garcia St. (Reposo), Bel Air II, Makati City. Visit https://mandy-navasero.blogspot.com.