The Help

After seeing some pretty mindless but fun movies this summer, it was a joy to see this amazing and thoughtful movie that elicits change.  It was serious while being funny, it was message-oriented while being factual, it was joyful and sobering and it was profound while being simple,  The movie unfolds from the point of view of 3 characters--Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children, Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), an African-American maid who alienates herself from her employers but then works for a respectful lady in desperate need of help, and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone), a young white woman and recent college graduate who gets a job as a journalist and who tries to make sense of how "the help" are treated by anonymously recording their thoughts and concerns in a book, "The Help."

The movie is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's with Skeeter communicating the daily lives of Southern homemakers and their maids.  The poignancy of the movie is shown in some of the amazing and unfair incidents of child-rearing, non-freedom to use public and private bathroom facilities, nasty and deep prejudice and more. 

I really don't want to relate some of the things that happen because it would spoil the flow of the movie.  Suffice it to say that you will be shocked, saddened, encouraged, and renewed by viewing the movie.  It's probably not a movie for those younger than teen-agers but many people could learn much from this wonderful movie.  It can change you.

The Smurfs

Alice didn't appreciate this movie as much as I did.  I confess that I'm not sure why I enjoyed the movie but I must say that I did.  I get caught up in the idea of "Buddy Movies" and this movie again proved my point.  The Smurfs were buddies with each other, especially Papa Smurf (voiced by Jonathan Winters), the hero, Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris) was a buddy with his wife, Grace (Jayma Hayes) and even the anti-hero, Gargamel (Hank Azaria) was a buddy with his cat.  The plot was sort of unnoticeable but had something to do with the Blue Moon Festival that the Smurfs were celebrating and the fact that Clumsy accidentally leads Gargamel to their lair and in their panicked escape they are sucked into a vortex and end up in New York City where they befriend (and are befriended) by Patrick.  Papa Smurf works on a potion to get them back home while Patrick works on a perfume ad campaignn to please his boss.  They both are successful while Clumsy is successful in rescuing everyone and returning them to the Smurf village which is now rebuilt with a New York City motiffe. As I said, the plot doesn't matter that much.  It's just fun.  I know, I know.  Some people suggest that the wizardry emphasis is not good for children.  Huh?  It's just fun and the "blue" jokes are worth hearing.  Oh, and Patrick and Grace name their son "Blue."