I hadn’t quite realised the extent to which racial segregation laws permeated into every day life, especially when a black person couldn't cut a white child’s hair or write anything remotely disparaging about their white brethren. “Skeeter” (Emma Stone) returns from college and decides there might be a way around this. She will write the book, but a selection of women from their Mississippi homes will provide the meat for this literary sandwich. These women are maids who all have stories to tell, but she faces quite a battle convincing them to spill any beans. That’s partly from loyalty, partly from fear and also because they all know that the local community on all sides is disinclined to rock the boat. It’s to “Aibileen” (Viola Davis) she initially turns and after some persuasion she begins to open up - and boy is it juicy! It’s not just a chance to open some eyes, but it gives the author a chance to re-evaluate her relationship with her own mother (Allison Janney) and with friends “Hilly” (Bruce Dallas Howard) and their odious friend “Celia” (Jessica Chastain) as well as a cast of family retainers who had more to do with bring up the children than any of their privileged parents ever did. When “Minny” (Octavia Spencer) gets sacked and a second source comes on stream for the book, the ridiculousness of, and hypocrisies that prevail in, this society are increasingly laid bare amidst attitudes of visceral hatred. Janney and Howard deliver well, crafting characters it’s easy to relate to - even in quiet a loathsome fashion, and both Spencer and Davis elicit sympathy but not cloyingly - it’s clear that they are worth ten of their wealthier and entitled employers. The boys don’t really feature so much here which allows a focus on the narrative uncluttered by romance, and there’s even a little from Sissy Spacek to add a little extra finesse to what is at times quite a subtly performed indictment of ignorance and bullying. Chocolate pie, anyone?
