The Help

The #1 New York Times bestseller by Kathryn Stockett comes to vivid life through the powerful performances of a phenomenal ensemble cast. Led by Emma Stone, Academy Award®-nominated Viola Davis (Best Supporting Actress, Doubt, 2008), Octavia Spencer and Bryce Dallas Howard, The Help is an inspirational, courageous and empowering story about very different, extraordinary women in the 1960s South who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project — one that breaks society’s rules and puts them all at risk. Filled with poignancy, humor and hope — and complete with compelling, never-before-seen bonus features — The Help is a timeless, universal and triumphant story about the ability to create change.

There are male viewers who will enjoy emThe Help/em, but Mississippi native Tate Taylor aims his adaptation squarely at the female readers who made Kathryn Stockett's novel a bestseller. If the multi-character narrative revolves around race relations in the Kennedy-era South, the perspective belongs to the women. Veteran maid Aibileen (emDoubt/em's Viola Davis in an Oscar-worthy performance) provides the heartfelt narration that brackets the story. A widow devastated by the death of her son, she takes pride in the 17 children she has helped to raise, but she's hardly fulfilled. That changes when Skeeter (emEasy A/em's Emma Stone) returns home after college. Unlike her peers, Skeeter wants to work, so she gets a job as a newspaper columnist. But she really longs to write about Jackson's domestics, so she meets with Aibileen in secret--after much cajoling and the promise of anonymity. When Aibileen's smart-mouthed friend Minny (breakout star Octavia Spencer) breaches her uptight employer's protocol, Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) gives her the boot, and she ends up in the employ of local outcast Celia (Jessica Chastain, hilarious and heartbreaking), who can't catch a break due to her dirt-poor origins. After the murder of Medgar Evers, even more maids, Minny among them, bring their stories to Skeeter, leading to a book that scandalizes the town--in a good way. Not since emSteel Magnolias/em has Hollywood produced a Southern woman's picture more likely to produce buckets of tears (and almost as many laughs). em--Kathleen C. Fennessybr /br //emspan class="h1"strongRelated Products/strong/span table border="0" style="height: 261px;" width="1003" tbody tr td divbr //div p style="text-align: center;"img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/dvd/Disney/helpbook_._V162217933_.jpg" //p p style="text-align: center;"strongThe Book/strong  br //p div style="text-align: center;"       br //div /td td div style="text-align: center;"img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/dvd/Disney/thehelpmusic_._V162217949_.jpg" /br //div div style="text-align: center;"strongThe Music/strongbr //div /td tdbr / div style="text-align: center;"br /br //div div style="text-align: center;"img height="115" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/dvd/Disney/Kathystock._V162217930_.jpg" width="76" /br //div div style="text-align: center;"strongMore From Kathryn Stockett/strongstrong /strong/div div style="text-align: center;"br //div /td /tr /tbody /table br /em/embr /embr //em span class="h1"strongMore From the Stars of emThe Help/em/strong/span table border="0" style="height: 261px;" width="1003" tbody tr td divbr //div p style="text-align: center;"img height="115" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51i7-mm0X-L._AA115_.jpg" width="115" /strongbr //strong/p p style="text-align: center;"strongEmma Stone/strongbr //p div style="text-align: center;"strong/strong       br //div /td td div style="text-align: center;"img height="110" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eNaxnTpzL._AA160_.jpg" width="110" /br /br //div div style="text-align: center;"strongViola Davis/strong/div /td tdbr / div style="text-align: center;"br /br //div div style="text-align: center;"img height="109" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vFwXxg94L._AA160_.jpg" width="97" /br /br //div div style="text-align: center;"strongBryce Dallas Howard/strongstrong br //strong/div div style="text-align: center;"br //div br //td /tr /tbody /table