The Help, a '60s set drama based on Kathryn Stockett's much loved novel, boasts one of the strongest female ensemble casts we've seen in several moons. How's Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Sissy Spacek and Allison Janney for a line-up? They're all in action in the film's new trailer which is up online and right here for your perusal.
The story is set in Jackson, Mississippi and revolves around the friendship between three women: a middle-aged African-American maid, Aibileen Clark (Davis); Minny Jackson, a fiery live-in help who struggles to stay in work (Octavia Spencer); and white college graduate Skeeter Phelan (Stone). The latter heads home from her studies to find that her beloved childhood maid has disappeared mysteriously. What unfolds - a fight for freedom and equal rights in the face of the town's opposition - should warm the cockles.
Stockett's book has a fittingly triumph-over-the-odds backstory of its own. It was rejected by more than 40 literary agents and took five years to finish. It's gone on to top the NY Times's bestseller list for five years. Suck on that literary agent types.
It's set during the same era of burning crosses and robed Klansmen that Alan Parker explored so powerfully in Mississippi Burning. See The Help director Tate Taylor's different take on this defining era of the state's history when the film makes its bow on October 28.
