The Help Movie Review

The Help=***** ( Epic! You must see! )

The Help starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Octavia Spencer is an extremely believable story revealing the portal of the relationships between people of colored skin and white skin in the south set in the early 1960's. This movie is an emotionally shocking film showing the inequality of the white home owners and their help. I saw the movie  first which propelled me to read the book.

This movie is set in  Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960's. Skeeter Phelan ( Emma Stone) a libeler  graduate from college,  just got a job to write the cleaning tips column for her local newspaper and is determined to write a story from the prospective of the help. She was brought up by her colored nanny, Constantine. She can’t pin down the reason why Constantine (Cicely Tyson), the beloved family maid, was let go. (fired) The relationship between Skeeter and Constantine was clearly closer than Skeeter’s bond with her own mother.

Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) has raised 17 white children in Jackson during a time when she lost her own son. Throughout the story Aibileen is the nanny for Mea Mobely and becomes her second mother.

Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) is the most fiery and explosive of the maids. Her big mouth gets her fired many time throughout the story including her last incident involving a chocolate pie.

This movie was rated 8.1 out of 10 stars by IMDB (The Internet Movie Database) and rated PG-13 for Language and Violence. 

Life As We Know It Movie Review

Life As We Know It=****1/2

Alison (Christina Hendricks) and Peter (Hayes MacArthur) are happily married, have a gorgeous home, and a beautiful baby daughter named Sophie. But the happiness they feel in each other's presence doesn't spread to their best friends. A few years back Alison tried to set up her best friend, bakery owner/caterer Holly (Heigl), with Peter's best friend, up-and-coming TV sports director Eric (Duhamel), and the results were disastrous. Eric acted like a complete jerk and Holly called the date off before they'd even pulled away from the curb. Since that time, Holly and Eric have continued to get on each other's nerves, and their mutual dislike is obvious.  

When a horrific accident thrusts the two together, they're forced to put most of their feelings of intense dislike toward each other aside. Alison and Peter left their precious Sophie in Eric and Holly's care, and though the thought of having to live in the same house and raise a child together would never have crossed their minds in happier times, the two find a way to tolerate each other for Sophie's sake. As they put aside their differences for the greater good, Holly and Eric discover there's more to one another than initially meets the eye.

Life As We Know It  directed by Greg Berlanti and is rated PG-13 for sexual material, language.