Films that are set in times when cigarettes were considered healthy always have quips towards the future that make me laugh, in the case of The Help it was a character being sure that one day cigarettes would kill us. How right you were. The main issue being discussed in this feature is racism, especially towards black maids in white homes and is set in the times of Martin Luther King Jnr. and JFK. However, other issues are brought to light when we discover that Minnie (Octavia Spencer) is being beaten by her husband. The villain of the piece is no longer just the white housewife (the heroine is in fact white) but the belligerent husband as well. Along with this underlying theme, there is the issue of feminism; if our main character Skeeter (Emma Stone) didn't have a job, she'd spend her life waiting for a man who has cancelled several dinner dates before even meeting her. In the eyes of her mother and friends, her only job should be finding a husband.
Emma Stone's Skeeter could have come across as self-righteous but she played down the character to help emphasise the real heroes of the piece (the maids) without losing her own voice. Job well done. I think the main message from this film is that slavery may have been dead at this time but they all still felt like slaves.
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