La couleur des sentiments

Au-delà des jolies couleurs à l'image, la réalisation de Taylor s'avère en outre franchement banale. Le film tire cependant profit d'une brochette d'actrices extrêmement talentueuses.

Mélodrame sur le racisme survenu aux États-Unis au courant des années 1960, The Help séduit amplement avec ses structures classiques et ses belles comédiennes parfaitement dirigées.

Dans certaines scènes, on sent bien l'insoutenable tension de l'époque, mais trop souvent, ce sont les robes des actrices, lesquelles se déclinent dans les couleurs les plus pimpantes, qui prennent le dessus.

A little more conflict could have given this film the edge it needed, but real arguing can get truly political, and that’s a dangerous thing - so all the real content, all the real history, is put on the beautifully recreated period back burner where it simmers, and eventually evaporates.

A fantastic, beautiful period piece featuring amazing turns by every member of its ensemble cast, Tate Taylor's The Help is a great way to close out the summer season and begin the prestige-loaded fall.

I'd say the performances by Davis, Tyson, and Spencer are what make The Help a really worthwhile film, as without them, I doubt I'd be giving this a recommendation.

Where The Help succeeds magnificently though is in character portraits by actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.

A deeply touching human story filled with humor and heartbreak is rare in any movie season, especially summer. That's what makes The Help an exhilarating gift.

And fans of the best-selling novel can rest easy: the warmly engaging book has been made into an equally affecting movie.

Save for Ms. Davis's, however, the performances are almost all overly broad, sometimes excruciatingly so, characterized by loud laughs, bugging eyes and pumping limbs.