The Help

It’s not very often that I go see a movie without having a pretty good idea what it’s going to be about.  This was not the case this past weekend when I accompanied my pre-teen on a girl’s day.

My daughter and her best friend have just turned ten. Their older, much more mature friend (a whopping fourteen, a lifetime of experience at that age) wanted to treat the girls to their first mostly parentless shopping trip and introduce them to the wonders of womanhood (bras and makeup, oh my…blech). Armed with their own money and a cell phone they navigated the mall, while I and their mothers, stayed out of the way. (For those of you who read this post, no, I wasn't really okay with this.) I’m trying to remember what I was doing at ten. At that age I’m pretty sure I was still making mud pies, refusing to brush my hair, and protesting my mother’s instructions to put on a shirt, but I digress.

The culmination of the girl’s day was a movie. I was all for Cars 2 or Spy Kids 4. They seemed entertaining and perfectly age appropriate to me.  The girls had other plans however. They wanted to watch a chic flick. God help me. (While I can appreciate a good chic flick from time to time, I flee from the likes of Jane Austen like a cat avoids a bath. My idea of a good time at the movie theater is more along the lines of X-Men or watching Jason Statham kick someone’s ass.)

With a soda, a big ole popcorn and some boneless chicken wings for sustenance, we sat down to watch The Help.  And I was pleasantly surprised.

I laughed, I considered crying, I wanted to kick some ass, and I cheered. I won’t give it away; this isn’t a movie review per se. It’s just not very often, in my opinion, that a movie makes you feel it all.  It’s not very often that a movie entertains you and leaves you contemplating the horrific behavior of humans in our not so distant past. It’s not very often that a movie you knew nothing about going into it stays with you beyond walking out the door, can show you the redeeming qualities of man, and touch your soul.

Kinda makes me curious to pick up the book it was based on.