Help

Last night was movie night. It was Toonie Tuesday, what can I say. We can't even stay at home and twiddle our thumbs for that price.

"The Help" was recommended to us by at least six people over the weekend so, not wanting to be the only ones in our circle of friends to have not seen it, we relented.

I was tempted to walk out after the first fifteen minutes, but a while later I reluctantly admitted that it might be a good idea to stay. It was finally starting to get to the point.

The time is the early sixties, and the location is the deep southern USA, Mississippi to be precise. The whites and the blacks are miles apart, but are under the same roof because one works for the other. It is an interesting and often amusing study of varying degrees of racial prejudice. It also gets heart wrenching at times to see the way people can treat each other. The attitude towards blacks in the south was deeply ingrained over many generations, and the ugly cycle was only beginning to break during this time in history.

The movie is well done, once the myriad of characters are straightened out and the viewer gets a feel for the developing story line. In the end it is satisfying and knowing history, we have hope because we know how the battle against racism was fought and how it is still being won today.

But I must say that at any moment I was expecting Oprah to make a cameo appearance and urge each and every one of us to go out and buy the book ( the title of the movie is also the title of a book being written in the movie) so we could change America. Oprah got her big career boost from the movie "The Colour Purple" and I could easily see one of the black maids in this movie make a big leap forward from this platform. A final note. I have always been a huge fan of chocolate pie. I was cured last night. I'm stickin' to apple.