The Help
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: August 10, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
15
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
EmpireAnna SmithOct 24, 2011
A simplistic portrayal of historic race relations boosted by terrific performances from some of the best actresses working in Hollywood today. Sure, it's corny, but it mostly works. Read full review
60
TimeMary PolsAug 10, 2011
For every obvious turn The Help takes, there is Davis, the ideal counterweight. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 10, 2011
It's a tough, beautifully judged performance (Davis) - it gives this too-soft movie a spine. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 9, 2011
Save for Ms. Davis's, however, the performances are almost all overly broad, sometimes excruciatingly so, characterized by loud laughs, bugging eyes and pumping limbs. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttAug 8, 2011
Taylor does capture the Jim Crow era and its anxieties well, but his characters tend toward the facile and his white heroine is too idealized. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderBen SachsAug 11, 2011
As in many reductive period pieces, there are no real characters here, just archetypes, namely reactionary cretins and sensitive souls who anticipate modern attitudes. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 10, 2011
The Help may be more interested in the moral at the end of the story than the story itself, but what saves the film from its meticulous one-dimensionality is that nuanced, deeply moving cast. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenAug 9, 2011
Typically, this sort of film is an earnest tear-jerker with moments of levity. Instead, what we have here is a raucous rib-tickler with occasional pauses for a little dramatic relief. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 9, 2011
As affectionately as Taylor has brought The Help to the screen, and as gratifying as it is to watch Davis and Spencer bring Aibileen and Minny to palpable, fully rounded life, their narrative, like "The Blind Side" a few years ago, is structured largely around their white female benefactor. Read full review
50
ObserverMeghan Keane Aug 9, 2011
If you can suspend your disbelief that a cute 22 year-old had the power to succeed with civil rights where Martin Luther King and President Kennedy failed, The Help actually has a lot to offer. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKarina LongworthAug 9, 2011
We get a fairly typical Hollywood flattening of history, with powerful villains and disenfranchised heroes. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensAug 11, 2011
The Help is a high-functioning tearjerker, but the catharsis it offers feels glib and insufficient, a Barbie Band-Aid on the still-raw wound of race relations in America. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 10, 2011
Emma Stone, for example, is no one's idea of an ugly duckling. And though she offers a sincere effort, she never quite settles into the role of Skeeter. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichAug 10, 2011
Spencer, a superb performer mainly known for small character parts, gives a star-making turn as the won't-take-no-guff Minny. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoAug 9, 2011
A chick flick for do-gooders, The Help suffers from a malady common to the discrimination drama: its treatment of inequality is more condescending than the prejudice it aims to remedy. Read full review
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