Kathryn Stockett’s Best Selling Novel ‘The Help’ Arrives in Theaters This Week

The cast of "The Help," from left: Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

This Wednesday Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 best selling novel The Help arrives in theaters. The timing of the premiere is unusual for such a sincere and potentially award-worthy film – usually the summer releases are reserved for hundred-million dollar blockbusters featuring cowboys and aliens and hot chicks with super powers – not book-turned-movies directed and produced by the author’s childhood friend. However, despite the rookie producer and untraditional release date, early reviews indicate The Help is poised to be a brilliant success.

The Help stars Emma Stone as Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a college graduate returned to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi who finds herself unable to fulfill her mother’s ‘southern belle’ expectations. She questions the racism that defines her southern society, and begins writing a book from the perspective of black domestics in her neighborhood.

The friendships, arguments, excitements and disappointments that ensue take the viewer on an entertaining and emotional ride through the civil war era south.

When Stockett’s novel was released in 2009, it faced significant skepticism regarding a white author’s ability to portray a black women’s perspective. However, fans of the novel were not deterred by critic’s skepticism. The Help has been on the best seller list since the day it was published – over 100 weeks in a row.

Stone, who plays the role of ’Skeeter’ in the film, believes the book is so popular because it’s more than a story about racism and the civil war era. It’s also a story about friendship, kinship and compassion. “It is a story about three women coming together to make an incredibly, extraordinary positive change in the world,” she says. “I think that’s why so many people related to the book. That’s why I related to the book because these characters felt like human beings. When the book is over, you cry not only because the story is so beautiful, but because you miss your friends.”
If that’s not reason enough to escape the summer heat and make a trip to the movie theater, I’m not sure what is.

-Hannah Perlmutter

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