So after 4 and-a-half weeks, it seems that The Help, the film of Kathyn Stockett's novel of the same name about the ins and outs of genteel, suburban Southern life, bridge clubs and barely concealed bigotry. This was a world where a family's Black maid would cook, clean, cater to the Mr. and Mrs. of the house and for all intents and purposes raise any children they couple might have and yet, these same people (generally the Mrs. of the couple) couldn't bear the thought of the women who were raising their children using the bathroom in their homes. So the "solution" of the neighborhood organizer, Hilly Holbrook (a wickedly, nasty Bryce Dallas Howard) is to require residents to basically build an outhouse for their maids. When one young woman, Eugenia "Skeeter' Phelan (Emma Stone, who I think is one of the best, brightest, most promising young actresses around) who "escaped" what was expected of her and attended Old Miss returns with a journalism degree, gets a job at the local paper, finds that a significant person from her life is unexpectedly missing with no explanation and sees what's happened to the place she's known all her life she doesn't like what she sees. Skeeter gets an idea to write a book about the experiences of the maids from the perspective of the maids and goes about enlisting the help of Aibileen Clark (the amazing and breathtaking Viola Davis), and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer in a role that is sure to bring her loads of nominations come awards season), though not without some initial resistance. There's a moment when Minny complains that the little girls they love, care for and bring up "they grows up to be just like they's mamas!" But gradually these women from one world begin to trust this girl from the other world in which they constantly move and yet can't be a part. I think this is obviously a movie that is speaking to people and in a more positive than negative way.
That is why it was so disturbing to me then that when on 10 August, Professor Melissa Harris Perry 'live Tweeted' her reaction to a screening of the movie for Lawrence O'Donnell's The Last Word on MSNBC; she is not a fan. Dr. Harris Perry insists this is "a coming of age story about a young white Southern woman...it is NOT a story about black women." What I think Dr. Harris Perry can't get past is that this is a sympathetic story about about black women but from the perspective of that "young white Southern woman," because I think this is a story that hasn't been told before. One of Dr. Harris Perry's criticisms was "Medgar Evers got as much screen time as Skeeter's boyfriend." Well, Dr. Harris Perry, the subject of Medgar Evers assassination was covered, covered well and beautifully by Whoopie Goldberg and James Woods in Ghosts of Mississippi; why retell this story unless you can improve on what's already been done? Dr. Harris Perry further indicts the movie as inconsequential and demeaning to 'the real issues' that domestic workers faced in Jackson, MS. "...it was rape, it was lynching, it was the burning of communities."
Yes, Dr. Harris Perry it was all of those things and they were wretched and horrible and heartbreaking; but they also faced these types of things, too and they may have been even more insidious because these were quiet, stealthy movements; adult peer pressure in it's most blatant form and not everyone went along to get along. Yet in this case this young woman stood up. She saw that her friends, people she'd known her whole life - even her own Mother - were not who she thought they were. To say the women in this story are "props to the white protagonist" paint a distorted picture of both the women and their champion, Dr. Harris Perry's "white protagonist." Additionally, to intimate that the only issues that female African-American domestic workers faced were the violent, invasive as the ones mentioned by the good doctor is dismissive and disrespectful of the real issues these women faced. Just because the issues weren't as violent or invasive as those related by Dr. Harris Perry, it didn't make them any less demeaning; remember, most people generally must use the bathroom more than once a day and each would require a trip to that "outhouse."
I've been watching Professor Harris Perry for several years on MSNBC. I've even gone through her name change! I agree with her most of the time, probably 85-90% and I'm glad to see that it seems she's going to be the go-to-Girl when they need a "fill-in" there, but there's a reason that we have people from academia on news/opinion/commentary shows and NOT as movie reviewers! This was a perfect example. Professor, this is not a film about the over arching civil rights movement. This is a film about characters and the relationships these characters have among themselves, how they change and how other relationships develop between characters who have historically related on one level and watching them change and relate on a completely differently level. I think Dr. Harris Perry should stick to her day job and as far as her commentary she should stick to things political, economical, and fiscal and leave the movie reviews to people like the SF Chronicle's Mick LaSalle.
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