Film screening of Kathryn Stockett's best selling novel The Help

Directed by Tate Taylor

Starring Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone

Certificate 12A, 137 minutes

The cinema adaption of kathryn Stockett's best selling 2009 novel tells of the relationship between white women and their black housekeepers in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi. In the racially charged climate, a young white Southerner convinces a group of African-American maids to relate their experiences working in white households. The stories they share reflect the devastating social inequality governing every aspect of life in Jackson at that time, and places the women at risk of reprisals from their employers.

'Director, Taylor, sidesteps politics and concentrates on personal injustices creating brilliant character portraits. Surprisingly, first time novelist Kathryn Stockett was allowed by Disney and Dreamworks to co-write the screenplay with her childhood friend Tate Taylor who she then requested direct the film. Dreamworks and Disney had the last laugh. After making more that $200m at the global box office, and becoming one of the year's great sleeper hits, The Help made a late entry into the Oscar conversation by stealing the show at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.' Guy Adams 31/01/2012