The Help (Tate Taylor, 2011)

The lives of three black housemaids in the early '60s, in pre-civil rights Mississippi, are changed when the scion of a wealthy local white family decides to write a book about their experiences. This is a worthy topic and as such the film predictably garnered a handful of Oscar nominations, but despite some fine performances and warm scenes, suffers from a lack of teeth and subtlety. As is par for the course, the whites are racist and malicious, bar a few ostracised idealists to play the 'Good German', and the oppressed blacks long-suffering and mystically wise, and therefore the stereotyping that the film depends on for dramatic impetus is a handicap which prevents it from attaining any great profundity. And of course once more it's the good whitey to the rescue at the end of the day, with her mother allowed to say sorry too to shore up the heroine's impeccable credentials.

5/10