The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him/Her

Earlier this week I saw The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby at the Landmark Embarcadero.  Technically, I saw two films.  The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him followed by The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her.  However, the two films were packaged together as a single 3 hour, 9 minute film with no intermission titled The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him/Her.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him/Her starring Jessica Chastain & James McAvoy; with Viola Davis, William Hurt, Isabelle Huppert, Ciarán Hinds, Bill Hader, Jess Weixler & Nina Arianda; directed by Ned Benson; (2013) - Official Website

The premise of the films is that the audience sees a couple break apart.  First, from the perspective of the man and then from the perspective of the woman.  There is actually a third version of the film called  The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them which combines the two but frankly that seems to defeat the whole purpose of the project which is to show how the two people view the breakup so differently.

The first question is why invoke The Beatles with the title?  Having read the lyrics to the song, I don't see a direct connection and referencing the name seems to be unnecessarily distracting (not to mention the added licensing fees).  I never figured that out but it didn't matter because I quickly became engrossed with the film.

I walked in about 5 minutes late and I missed the opening which I have read involves Connor (James McAvoy) and Eleanor (Jessica Chastain) Ludlow (née Rigby) doing a dine and dash.  As I later discovered, the film starts with the Him version.

When I walked into the theater, Connor (a restaurateur) is depressed at the state of his relationship.  He returns to his Brooklyn walk-up apartment before the dinner service to find his wife still in bed and morose.  As the film progresses, it is made known that the Ludlow's son has died and it has put an enormous strain on their marriage.  Eleanor eventually attempts suicide and afterwards disappears without a trace.

Connor chances upon Eleanor and begins to stalk his own wife.  Eleanor is largely absent from Him.  Connor is left to deal with his seemingly irrational wife's absence.  As time passes, Connor's most pressing problem becomes his restaurant which is financially failing.  At a crucial juncture, Eleanor returns and the audience is hopeful that the couple will reconcile but Connor admits an infidelity at an inopportune moment.

Him ends at some unspecified point in the future when Connor has taken over his father's restaurant and as he takes a walk before the dinner service, his wife trails behind him...reversing their roles from earlier in the film.

In Her, we learn that after her suicide attempt, Eleanor has taken refuge with her parents in a wealthy suburb.  We learn a little more of the backstory of their relationship.  Eleanor's parents seem to have not approved of their romance initially.  In addition, Eleanor is more rational and less angry than the glimpses we see in Him. She also thinks back to the early days of their relationship more often that one would think given her behavior in Him.

Ultimately, the Her story converges with Him but Her is viewed differently than Him because the audience already knows what happens.  However, director Ned Benson does something clever.  In the scenes which overlap the two viewpoints, he occasionally changes events between the two version.  I caught a number of small discrepancies but there were three significant ones which make the story more ambiguous.

First, during an intimate encounter in an automobile Connor confesses he has slept with someone during their separation.  In the Her, Connor does not confess but rather Eleanor correctly guesses his indiscretion based on his hesitation.  The even switch physical positions:  Connor on top of Eleanor in Him and vice versa in Her.

The second discrepancy occurs when the pair are clearing out of their apartment.  In Her, Eleanor apologizes for her behavior while that does not occur in Him.  In one version she wants to apologize and in the other, he doesn't hear the apology.

Finally, the ending of the two films leave the audience with distinctly different impressions.  In Him, Eleanor follows Connor without saying a word and the film fades to black.  In Her, after following him for a period, Eleanor calls out to Connor who turns around and approaches her.

I interpreted these differences as the Rashōmon Effect which makes me wonder how they were dealt with in Them.

The cast is uniformly fantastic.  McAvoy's Connor comes across a little too passive and whiny for me while Chastain's Eleanor is too shrill at times.  Both of these characters are flawed yet also appealing.  Of the two, Chastain's part is the more meaty one; particularly when considering both films as whole.  She really gets to show some range in the role of Rigby.

The real treat in Eleanor Rigby are the supporting performances.  William Hurt & Isabelle Huppert play Eleanor's parents.  I didn't know Huppert could speak English well enough to act in English language films.  Here, she nicely plays an alcoholic mother who regrets her life choices which explicitly includes having her daughters.  Jess Weixler is Eleanor younger sister, an unmarried mother who lives at home and has some issues with her big sister.  Ciarán Hinds portrays Connor's father, a famous and successful restaurateur who is one-step removed from being estranged from his son.  Bill Hader is Connor's flaky best friend and chef.  Finally, Viola Davis commands every scene she is in as Eleanor's cynical psychology professor with whom she forms a friendship.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him/Her was a very satisfying film for me.  It's one of the better films I have seen in 2014.  Both Chastain & Davis have had some high-profile parts in the past few years (both were in The Help a few years ago).  It's good to see them continue their histories of strong performances.

Eastern Monks & Detectives, Southern Ladies and Maids

Before I dutifully chronicle the films I've watched, I want to report that I gobbled up The Help by Katheryn Stockett in three days. The film followed the novel quite closely. There were a few differences but I think I enjoyed the novel and the film equally.

In the novel, Skeeter was described as unattractive - 5'11", skinny legs and arms & a beak nose. She was called Skeeter because she looked like a mosquito which created a pun when the black maids would address her as "Miss Skeeter." I didn't pick up on that in the film but reading it over and over reinforced it. I find actress Emma Stone, who portrayed Skeeter, to be quite attractive so it never dawned on me that her character was considered unattractive. The film had numerous flashbacks to Skeeter as a child and I thought her character was a late bloomer.

Miss Hilly came off worse in the book. Hilly was more snooty in the film but downright evil in the film. The character was gaining weight due to stress but Bryce Dallas Howard (the actress who played Hilly) is slender. Hilly's husband was running for office in the novel; I don't recall that from the book.

I recall a scene towards the end of the film where Skeeter or her mother says something about her mother's cancer going into remission. That was the first mention I recall of cancer in the film. I thought it was a plot point which was cut from the film. I did go to the bathroom during the film so I may have missed it but Skeeter's mother's illness plays a prominent role in the novel.

Skeeter's maid, Constantine, was part white in the novel and her daughter was sent away to Chicago because she was "high yellow." It is strongly implied the father was white and for awhile, I thought Skeeter's father would be identified as the father. In the film, my recollection is that Constatine's daughter used the front door of Skeeter's house and that was why Constatine was fired. In the novel, Constatine's daughter passes herself off as white at the DAR meeting which upsets Skeeter's mother and precipitates the firing.

I could continue to list the differences but they aren't important enough to affect the story or plot. The casting was quite effective because I imagined the actresses in their roles as I read the novel (with the exception of Cicely Tyson as Constatine who was described as 6'1" tall).

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I saw two big budget, Chinese action films.

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame starring Andy Lau, Bingbing Li, Carina Lau & Tony Leung Ka Fai; directed by Hark Tsui; Mandarin with subtitles; (2010)
Shaolin starring Andy Lau & Nicholas Tse; with Bingbing Fan & Jackie Chan; directed by Benny Chan; Mandarin with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website

Detective Dee featured the fight choreography of Sammo Hung.

I saw Shaolin at the 4 Star but it is screening Wednesday and Thursday at the Viz. I saw Detective Dee at the Landmark Embarcadero where it is still playing.

I can imagine the pitch line for Detective Dee - let's do Sherlock Holmes in Chinese! I wasn't a big fan of the 2009 Robert Downey film but it was entertaining enough - long on special effects, short on character development and plot. It was kind of neat seeing Big Ben as it was being built and Downey can be likable enough given the role. At times, I thought Sherlock Holmes was channeling Tony Stark but Downey plays the wiseacre well.

Detective Dee seems to go for the same formula except with Andy Lau in the title role. Lau acquitted himself as well as the role allowed. At two hours, I thought the film a little self-indulgent. Regardless of the length, the film relied too heavily on special effects and ponderously long action sequences.

The plot, in a nutshell, features cases of spontaneous combustion involving people building a huge Buddha which reminded more of how I imagine the Colossus of Rhodes looked. China's greatest investigator, Detective Dee, is released from prison by the queen (whom he rebelled against years earlier) to solve the crime. I'll give you one clue: fire turtles...at least, that's what the subtitled translation said.

Andy Lau and Bingbing Li have a love-hate relationship which is kind of cute and they choreographed a scene of the two of them which was sexy, exciting and humorous. That scene (which is in the trailers) is my favorite from the film. Chao Deng shows up as a blonde or albino rival investigator. I'm not sure why the character looked the way he did. Detective Dee is based on Dí Rénjié, a real-life government official who died in 700 AD. I'm not sure if the Deng character was based on a real person. Chao Deng turns in one of the better performances of the film as Dee's rival and grudging ally.

Detective Dee is about as much fun as Sherlock Holmes with its giant Buddha statue, spontaneous combustion and high energy action sequences. I'm not sure if Spaniards were in China the 600s but they were in the film.

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Andy Lau got to show more range in Shaolin. In this film, Lau plays an arrogant general who is betrayed by his colonel and forced to seek sanctuary in a Shaolin monastery which he had previously violated by killing someone the monks had given sanctuary to and then vandalizing their sign.

Lau shows the audience arrogant to abject and gets to interact with Nicholas Tse (the Colonel) and Jackie Chan (the cook at the monastery). Marginally more interesting than Detective Dee, Shaolin still seemed interminable at 2 hours, 11 minutes. Chan performs his screen magic in one scene where he uses cooking utensils to defeats his foes. Chan's frenetic style of on-screen fighting is more to my taste than anything else in Shaolin.

Taking itself seriously than Detective Dee, Shaolin lacks some of the exuberance and joy which go into great Chinese action films. Nicholas Tse as the villain certainly goes over the top in convincing us how evil he is. Tse is quite a popular working actor now. I've seen four of his films in recent month - The Stool Pigeon, Bodyguards and Assassins and the fabulous The Beast Stalker.

Yu Hai is memorable as the abbot of the monastery and comes full circle as he had a role in The Shaolin Temple (starring Jet Li) which Shaolin is nominally a remake of. About the only thing which is the same in the two films is that the temple is destroyed.

Now that I think about it, a giant Buddha statue plays a major role in the climax of Shaolin also.

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Seeing these two films leads me to believe the Chinese are making big budget films in the style of Hollywood action films. I hope they can do better.

Books Read and Movies Seen - The Hedgehog, the Aliens, the Maniac, the Beachball, the Corsican and The Help

Before I was a cinephile, I was a bibliophile. I still read more than my friends but it is impossible to read as much I used to since I'm a slave to the rep house schedule. There is a common perception that books are "better" than films. Books stimulate the imagination while films force feed mental pablum to the masses. I can't argue that stereotype given much of what comes out of Hollywood. If nothing else, I hope the reader of this blog will appreciate my attempts to sample a wide range of "serious" cinema...although I may have to go through a pile of horse manure to find the pony.

When I read fiction, I frequently don't fill in the details. For example, faces become blurred when I read fiction. I don't imagine the faces of the characters. I imagine the characters in an abstract and noncorporeal sense. I certainly don't imagine soundtracks to enhance the story. So when I see a well-made film, it gives detail where there would have been none if I had read the story. Beyond that, the best films are made by creative types who can enhance the story in clever and ingenious ways. In short, a well made film can trump my imagination; I'm not sure if that is high praise for certain filmmakers or an embarrassing revelation of my infertile mind.

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I have a friend who used to be an English teacher. When we were in high school, I read much more than her so it was a bit of surprise that she became an English teacher. After college, she overtook my reading pace. She has subsequently moved on to be a guidance counselor but she still seems to read voraciously as she sends me books to read periodically. I have my own reading list so the books pile up.

One of the books she gave me was The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. I read it about 18 months ago and greatly enjoyed it. It was with great anticipation that I awaited the film adaption. Originally written in French, the novel was made into a French language film in 2009. I watched the film earlier this month at the Landmark Bridge.

The Hedgehog starring Josiane Balasko, Garance Le Guillermic & Togo Igawa; directed by Mona Achache; French with subtitles; (2009) - Official Website

The plot centers around Renée Michel (Balasko), the concierge at a luxury apartment building in Paris. I'm only familiar with concierges in upscale hotels who get tickets for the guests at sporting and entertainment events. Mme. Michel is more of a building superintendent - she cleans the commons areas, puts the trash cans on the street, signs for packages and lives in the ground floor apartment. Mme. Michel plays the part of a concierge quite well - soap operas always on the television, curt, efficient and vaguely ignorant. However, she is concealing a secret. Mme. Michel is an autodidact, quite intelligent and possessing an enviable library of classic literature and philosophy which she hides from the tenants.

The novel delved into class issues and the personal reasons for Mme. Michel's behavior but the movie glossed over much of it. Mme. Michel's youth and late husband were discussed at length in the novel while they were barely mentioned at all in the film.

Whereas the film gave short shrift Mme. Michel's character development, it enhanced the character of Paloma Josse. Paloma is the 12 year old daughter of one of the families in the building. Precocious and morbid, Paloma has decided to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. She is tired of the hypocrisy and meaninglessness of life. This might be dismissed as teenage angst but Paloma also possesses a keen mind and impressive artistic skills (I don't recall this from the novel).

Despite living in the same building and have similar interests in literature and philosophy, Paloma and Mme. Michel's lives barely intersect until Kakuro Ozu, a Japanese diplomat moves in. Ozu immediately senses that Mme. Michel is much more than she appears. He quickly grows bored with the other tenants and begins friendships with Mme. Michel and Mlle. Josse, the only two interesting tenants. Ozu, with the help of Paloma, begin the slow process of drawing Mme. Michel out of her shell. I won't give away the ending.

In the book, Ozu claimed to be a distant relative of director Yasujirō Ozu but in the film, he denies any relationship. One of the pivotal points in the book and film is when Mme. Michel brings a DVD (or was it VHS) of one of her favorite films, Ozu's The Munekata Sisters (1950). There has been a spate of Ozu screenings in the Bay Area over the past two years. I'm hoping some programmer teams up The Hedgehog with The Munekata Sisters.

Despite enjoying the book more than the film, I still was entertained by the film and recommend it.

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By chance, I learned that the novel Starship Troopers is on the official reading lists of the US Marine Corps and US Navy. I didn't now the service branches had official reading lists and I certainly didn't think the source material for a universally panned 1997 film would make the lists. It turns out Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein won the prestigious Hugo Award in 1960. Curious about a novel could be so respected but the film adaptation so reviled, I read Starship Troopers.

The novel has long passages about the state of society in the future. The main change from present is that to be a citizen in the future, one must volunteer in the military for two years. Civilians have all the rights as citizens except only citizens can vote and hold elected office. The book goes deeper into the main character's indoctrination into the mobile infantry. Heinlein uses the novel to promote individual sacrifice for the greater good of society. This is somewhat lost in the film.

I had had Starship Troopers on my To Read list for awhile but when I saw it was being screened at Midnites for Maniacs I obtained a copy. It was a quick read. I've seen parts of Starship Troopers on television for many years but still couldn't piece together the plot.

Starship Troopers starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer & Denise Richards; with Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown & Neil Patrick Harris; directed by Paul Verhoeven; (1997)

Starship Troopers roughly follows the plots from the novel. A few scenes are added that weren't in the book, a few scenes from the book were deleted from the film, a few characters were merged, etc. All this could have been dealt with satisfactorily. However, the criticism of the film is probably directed at the satirical tone the film took. Host Jesse Hawthorne Ficks stressed before the film that it was a satire. I'm not sure how anyone could miss that point after watching it. Perhaps some reviewers were looking for something closer to the novel.

The novel was intended for young adults but was earnest; as if Ayn Rand had tried her hand at science fiction. Now that I think about it, she did. The result is Anthem which was the basis for Rush's 2112. When I was a teenager, I was a huge Rush fan. I have found that statement ("I was a huge Rush fan") to be provocative and people make assumptions about me based on it. So I put it out there and let the reader believe what he or she will - in my youth, I listened to Rush and read Ayn Rand.

Starship Troopers wasn't a great film but I'm not as negative about it as others. Perhaps fans of the book resented Verhoven's treatment. Being the director of RoboCop, Basic Instinct and Showgirls probably hurt the reputation of his subsequent films. I note that Ficks has screened RoboCop before so Verhoven is becoming a staple of the Maniac's canon.

I preferred the book to the movie. The book was serious but aimed at young adults. The film was satirical and aimed at young adults. There was no co-ed shower scene in the book. However, the film had great supporting actors; particularly Clancy Brown and Michael Ironside. Not coincidentally, Brown & Ironside were closest to what I imagined for their characters while reading the book. Dina Meyer turned in the best performance (the gender of her role was switched from the book) of the three leads.

I can't recommend Starship Troopers (the film) but I have to admit there was some guilty pleasure at time (perhaps the shower scene has some merit).

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The Midnites for Maniacs' triple feature that night was Aliens, Starship Troopers and Dark Star. I passed on Aliens but stuck around for Dark Star.

Dark Star starring Dan O'Bannon; directed by John Carpenter; (1974)

Dark Star was Carpenter's directorial debut. Ficks mentioned the movie was Carpenter's film school thesis. He also mentioned that many people who attended the screening during the original run were under the influence of recreational narcotics. I believe it.

Let me start by saying that Ficks needs to do a better job starting the films on time. Starship Troopers started around 30 minutes late. He then made up some time but the 11:59 screening of Dark Star started around 12:20. So you can guess what happened - I fell asleep about 45 minutes in. The last scene I remember is Pinback (O'Bannon) escaping the elevator shaft by climbing through the floor plate of the cab of the elevator.

Did I fall asleep because of the late hour or because the film was bad? Yes.

The main special effect was an alien which was a beach ball with a clawed hands as feet. The synthesized music and sound effects were annoying. Finally, the aforementioned elevator shaft scene went on and on.

While awake, I didn't enjoy what I watched. Carpenter borrowed generously from 2001: A Space Odyssey and inserted a lot more humor than in the films he would later become famous for. I read they were considering a remake of Dark Star. The best I can say is that I would consider seeing the remake.

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The evening's theme for Midnites for Maniacs was Colonizing 'R Us. The three films had a number of connections. When James Cameron was writing the screenplay for Aliens, he was inspired by Starship Troopers (the novel) when imagining the space marines. The space beach ball was the partial inspiration for the alien in Alien, the predecessor film of Aliens. O'Bannon was credited with the screenplay for Alien. So the beach ball in Dark Star begat Alien which begat Aliens which begat Alien vs. Predator and so forth and so on.

The most famous marine from Aliens was Pvt. Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein). Her character was so popular that Gene Rodenberry and the creators of Star Trek The Next Generation based a character on her. Lt. Tasha Yar was originally named Macha Hernandez and Marina Sirtis was cast in the role. Denise Crosby and Sirtis switched parts before production and Macha Hernandez became Tasha Yar. Sirtis (who is of Greek descent, I believe) could pass for Latina but not Crosby.

I also have to give kudos to Ficks who has really stepped up his stage presence. I'm not sure how much is rehearsed and how much is extemporaneous but Ficks is very composed and articulate on stage. He has his tag line down to a tee - "I'm Jesse Hawthorne Ficks. Thank you for coming." It's a very simple exit line but he hits it with the solemnity of a Shakespearean actor.

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I just completed Kevin Brownlow's Napoléon: Abel Gance's Classic Film about his love affair with the film, the making of the film, his relationship with director Abel Gance and his lifelong efforts to reconstruct the film. At times, Bronwnlow is prone to quote from multiple critics and trade publication on the reviews for various versions Napoléon. That's about the only criticism I can muster. Of course, I read the book because Napoléon will be screening at the Paramount Theater in Oakland on March 24, 25, 31 and April 1, 2012.

The making of Napoléon was epic and Brownlow's efforts to reconstruct the film were no less impressive. Alternately fighting with and cooperating with such legendary figures as Abel Gance, Francis Ford Coppola and Henri Langlois, Brownlow used all methods at his disposal in his search for scraps of the original film. He's like Ahab except his white whale is the definitive version of Napoléon. Published in 1983, Brownlow has restored an additional 35 minutes since then which is the version that will be screened in Oakland next year. Brownlow's praise of the film and description of audience reactions has set a high standard that I hope can be achieved at the Paramount. I'm particularly looking forward to the triptych finale and the snowball fight.

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As I was going through the stack of books I've accumulated from my friend, I noticed one was The Help by Katheryn Stockett. I'll start that book tomorrow. I'm curious as to the differences between the novel and film by the same name. The film was a comedy which was part of my criticism. I'll be eager to see if the novel strikes the same tone.

The Help

I stopped by the Balboa earlier this week to see The Help.

The Help starring Emma Stone & Viola Davis; (2011) - Official Website

The best piece of trivia which I've heard in a long time is that director Tate Taylor kept a calendar tracking the actresses' menstrual cycles. The implication being that if put you a dozen actresses together, you get a real bitchapalooza. There were long stretches where no men appeared on screen during The Help; husbands and fathers weren't integral to the plot. In fact, they were conspicuous by their absence.

The plot has Skeeter (Stone), a recent Ole Miss graduate, returning to her home town of Jackson, Mississippi. I didn't catch it until the end but her mother's (Allison Janney) illness is the primary reason for her return. Skeeter gets a job at the local newspaper writing a "helpful household hints" column to gain the experience she is told she is lacking. Her would-be publisher (Mary Steenburgen) see potential in Skeeter but she needs experience which is lacking in a newly minted college graduate.

Set in 1963, The Help takes place during the height of the civil rights era. Many of the historic events of the period are incorporated into the plot; more as time markers than plot devices. Medgar Evers' assassination, MLK's March on Washington and JFK's assassination are all mentioned during the film. Given the hindsight of history, you would think these monumental events would inspire the characters. However, The Help is a comedy that deals with weighty matters such as racism and indirectly, feminism but it deals with these events in personal terms as conveyed by the female characters' evolving relationships.

Skeeter decides that to gain further experience she will interview the black maids who work in white households. The maids care for their employer's children, prepare their employer's meals and are privy to their employer's secrets but they are subjected to racist and degrading behavior. The line between employer and employee is never breached much less the very real divide separating black and white in 1963 Mississippi. The Help glosses over the virulent racism of the time and place but it is a comedy after all

The maids are understandably tight-lipped when Skeeter tries to interview some of them. Skeeter's childhood friend Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the catalyst which convinces the maids that their employers' dirty laundry needs to be aired. In Hilly Holbrook, we have a supreme bitch that could give Joan Crawford a run for her money. Not content with lording over the hired help, she has started a petition requiring household's employing "colored" servants to build a "separate but equal" bathroom. Here's the best part; she frames her petition as a public health initiative because "they have different diseases." By the end of the film, Hilly has gone so low as to frame a maid for a crime she didn't commit.

Hilly is deliciously bitchy but the character throws the film off balance. I guess she personifies the racism which is ever present but Howard's splashy performance combined with the seeming lack of impact the civil rights movement had on the characters puts The Help in some strange alternate universe. Some of the black maids get pretty uppity for 1963 Mississippi with little consequence shown on screen. The enormity of institutionalized racism gets reduced to a bitchy white woman making trouble for anyone that gets in her way.

At certain points of the film, I thought the film was also commenting on the limited opportunities afforded to women of any color in 1963. Skeeter's friends think she is strange because she has a college degree, a job at the newspaper and isn't married. Perhaps harpy Hilly is the way she is because she didn't have anything else to occupy her mind. If she had encountered people of different backgrounds at a job or through travels, she wouldn't put so much emphasis on what food was served at her bridge club meetings.

The final criticism I have for this film is the character is Skeeter. Supposedly an ugly duckling, I though Skeeter/Emma Stone was most attractive. Her appearance, intelligence and lack of racism was highly attractive but I guess in the dying days of Jim Crow, Southern femininity had different standards of excellence.

All these issues I have with the film do not offset what is a largely enjoyable film. The film veers into melodrama and manipulates the audience's emotion in obvious ways but I couldn't help but root for Skeeter and two of the maids, Aibileen (Davis) and Minnie (Octavia Spencer). I also sympathized with Jessica Chastain who plays an outsider who is shunned by the female white society in Jackson for strictly personal reasons by Hilly. That Hilly is a one-woman wrecking crew but she gets her comeuppance with a pie whose contents are best kept secret.

Combined with highly entertaining The Easy A, Emma Stone is establishing herself as the sexiest and funniest comedic actor out there today. I am a big Emma Stone fan.

I've already mentioned the talented Allison Janney and Mary Steenburgen in supporting roles. Sissy Spacek and Cicely Tyson also do well in their roles as Hilly's mother and Skeeter's former family maid, respectively. The only actor to make an impact is the diminutive Leslie Jordan as Skeeter's editor. I recall Jordan well from his appearances (opposite Betty White) on Boston Legal which was one of my favorite television series.

The Help is not exactly a primer for the civil rights movement because it is a light comedy dealing weighty issues. I was content to just laugh at outrageous behavior and hiss at the villain, so The Help was the right film for me.