The Help

Full disclosure: I lived in Jackson MS for 2 years. I loved Jackson. But if you weren't in the Junior League, and if you weren't from MS, there was no way you could go to a fancy tea with cucumber sandwiches and servants. 
The Help was a rather badly written book that was turned into a much better film. The "spoiled rich white girl" is played up rather nicely (and over the top)  by Ron Howard's talented daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, and the "victimized" help is played rather nicely by every single person cast in their roles.  Emma Stone plays the writer of a "fictional" book written from interviews of The Help. Stone is aptly named since her face appears frozen and bizarrely fixed in a stare (botox?). She appears unnatural and creepy. It's too bad, because she is charming in other movies. Maybe she needs her thyroid checked? I don't know, but the result is not easy to watch.  However, the acid test was bringing along my husband. He was all ready to take a 2 hour nap but then he actually started to like the movie. So it must be okay. I am going to give it 3 stars despite the obvious message it sends that southerners are bad people.