The Help (2011)

The critic is sold on this brazen Oscar-baiter about black maids publishing a memoir in 1960s Mississippi, despite some sentimentality and historical gloss. The heartfelt, hilarious film is elevated by a dream-team cast topped by Viola Davis.

The film turns potentially mushy material into something genuinely stirring thanks to its talented cast and director. Standout performances from Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Emma Stone, plus strong comic timing and likeability, make it a ladies'-night crowd-pleaser.

A well-made, stirring drama with terrific performances that mostly works despite occasional patronising moments. It benefits from a quality cast, moving story, fizzy dialogue and strong period detail.

The film is too soft and glossy with TV-style close-ups but delivers a thorough emotional workout that plays like effective soap opera. It belongs to Viola Davis, whose tough and beautifully judged performance gives the movie a spine.

Strong central performances, especially from Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, make the film watchable despite its flaws. The story offers only a partial, overly cosy and white-savior view of segregation and race relations in 1960s Mississippi.

The film is a self-conscious and self-congratulatory portrait of the Jim Crow South that idealizes its white heroine and relies on facile characters. It succeeds through two magnificent, award-worthy performances by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.

This is a nicely cast but otherwise pedestrian adaptation of the bestseller that meanders through incidental scenes and lacks dramatic momentum. Performances by Viola Davis and Jessica Chastain stand out amid the mixed bag.

The film excels when relating black experience through the maids' stories but reduces much else to cheap historical ironies and thesis-declaiming dialogue. It ultimately centers the white protagonist Skeeter as the real hero in a paternalistic take on the material.

The film lets its risky premise resolve far too easily and without real tension. It is the softest, fluffiest take on racial oppression imaginable.

The film is a delicious, peppery Southern stew of racism that turns feel-bad material into a heart-warming surprise through laughter and strong performances. The cast, led by Davis, Stone, and Spencer, and Taylor's deep Southern roots give it emotional charge and specificity.

The film is an airbrushed fairytale but rousingly effective in its account of the push for racial equality. It features strong performances from Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, with Emma Stone as the catalyst.

The movie is crude and obvious in places but opens up new experience on screen and is moving and well-acted enough that second-rate elements matter less. Taylor brings out the best in his cast, especially Davis and Spencer, while focusing on female friendship under pressure.

The film is a big, ole slab of honey-glazed hokum that strains for tears with its pileup of calamities. Viola Davis's performance as Aibileen gives the movie needed gravity and dimension amid its buoyant tone.

Emma Stone is sparkling in this hugely enjoyable adaptation of the bestseller. It concentrates on personal injustices rather than broad politics and features fine comic and dramatic turns from the cast.

It is a stirring black-empowerment tale that personalizes the civil rights movement through domestic servants' testimony. The adaptation has Southern sass, feel-good sensitivity, and strong ensemble appeal, especially among its target audience.

The critic calls Taylor’s take a profound and rousing triumph with lasting universal appeal. Standout performances from Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are singled out for praise as they bring warmth, humanity and award-worthy depth to the central roles.

A well-intentioned drama buoyed by strong performances, especially Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, that lift it above a potentially Hallmark-style story. The critic praises the Southern charm and focus on the maids but notes it is predictable, overly tidy and not particularly groundbreaking or challenging.

The film delivers powerful emotional moments thanks to strong performances, especially Viola Davis as Aibileen, but stumbles with uneven character shading, an overly faithful adaptation, unnecessary subplots, and excessive length.

A good story well told with an immersive quality and startlingly good performances from the entire cast, particularly Stone, Davis and Spencer. The critic notes an uneasy feeling about the film’s time-capsule approach to racism but ultimately finds the emotional notes attractive despite some heaviness.

The adaptation feels like a sanitised version of the truth about the experiences of black maids in 1960s Mississippi. Viola Davis delivers a quiet expression of strength as Aibileen, and the emerging trust between her and Skeeter is gratifying to watch.

The critic calls it an enjoyable message movie and urges readers to see it. They single out its focus on the power of storytelling as both meta subject and source of terrific, entertaining tales from the characters.