Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis in "The Help"
“THE HELP” My rating: B+ (Now playing wide)
137 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
You can’t throw a rock at “The Help” without hitting an Oscar-worthy performance, making this adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best-seller one of the best-acted films since, well, “The King’s Speech.”
All that thespian power comes in handy in diverting our attention from some of the story’s more Hollywood-ish plotting and an unimaginative visual style.
OK, maybe I’m being too much of a critic here. There may be a few pedestrian elements in this sure-fire box office smash, but there’s no ignoring the pure emotional power of this story set in the Jim Crow South.
This is a movie that will set audiences to laughing, then bawling, then laughing and bawling all over again.
Butler's Cinema Scene 