The Help
FILM / times vary / BBC2
The cast is amazing, the story heartfelt and the 1960s Deep South setting rings true. Perhaps that’s enough to gloss over something missing at the heart of this story about a white civil rights activist (Emma Stone) setting down in writing the day-to-day lives of her maid and other black domestics. That something is the lives of the black women themselves. Though superb actors like Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis put their all into making underwritten characters believeable, it’s the likes of Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard and Sissy Spacek – all also superb – who carry the drama. Watch it for the acting.