My name is Mike.
Enjoyed “The Help” more than I thought I would.
And by that I mean I hated it, but not as much as I thought I would. I just can’t stand these formulaic movies about race in which everyone is a racist except for the one girl/guy who has the courage to stand up. And he/she has no bad qualities, while the antagonist is detestable in every way. I want situations in which I hate the protagonist and scenarios in which I feel sorry for the antagonist. I want to be confused by my feelings for the characters. Racism is not a simple topic. It’s not just just black and white, pun intended. Yes, some people are awful racists, and yes, some people are color blind. But people also exist in the middle of those two extremes. In fact, most people probably do on some level, thanks to the things that society teaches us subliminally and outright. And if that’s true today, it was probably even more true in the ’60s. I just think there’s no room for perfect characters in a movie about racism. It’s an ugly reality and we’re all guilty of it in some way. Yes, there were a lot of ugly truths in this movie, but for the most part I felt like I was watching Beverly Cleary’s take on racism. Obviously I’m holding The Help to a higher standard than I would if it weren’t nominated for Best Picture. If it hadn’t been nominated, then I probably would’ve enjoyed it. But with movies like Martha Marcy May Marlene and Rampart being passed over this year, you had better be pretty damn good if you’re going to take a Best Picture nod. The Help was not pretty damn good.
However, to completely contradict myself, it is entirely worth watching simply to see Jessica Chastain. She’s beautiful, brilliant, and her character’s story is the one redeeming part of the plot. Huge crush on her right now.
