As hard to dislike as it is to truly admire, this artfully manipulative issue movie knows where its strengths lie... and most of them lie in Viola Davis.
- , Film4, November 01, 2011
It tackles a challenging, inflammatory subject in the corniest, safest way possible.
- David Sexton, This is London, October 28, 2011
In dramatic terms it works a treat.
- Xan Brooks, Guardian [UK], October 27, 2011
The Help not only has its cake and eats it, it makes short work of the fried chicken, grits and sweet potato pie, too.
- Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph, October 26, 2011
Yes, it gets a bit sentimental. Yes, some 'Ya-Ya Sisterhood' friendship clichés creep in. Yes, it glosses history. But it's also heartfelt, hilarious and the cast is a dream-team topped by Viola Davis.
- Cath Clarke, Time Out, October 25, 2011
Sure, it's corny, but it mostly works.
- Anna Smith, Empire Magazine, October 23, 2011
if you get to the end of this movie without tearing up at least once, please check for a pulse; you might already be dead.
- Jim Schembri, The Age (Australia), September 02, 2011
It's well crafted and performed and well, if all the ends tie up a little too neatly and every single sub-text is spelled out, that's Hollywood for you.
- Julie Rigg, MovieTime, ABC Radio National, September 02, 2011
Superbly cast and effectively scripted, The Help has been designed to forge a direct connection with the viewer on an emotional level.
- Leigh Paatsch, Herald Sun (Australia), September 02, 2011
It's a heartfelt effort and soundly performed, but it doesn't have the depth or nuance to sustain its long running time.
- Belinda Hazleton, FILMINK (Australia), September 02, 2011
It irks me when a film deals with issues that are actually important in an unsubtle and sentimenalised way.
- Margaret Pomeranz, At the Movies (Australia), August 31, 2011
The Help brings together several themes that are not in themselves new to us but bear repeating often, especially when told with such sensitivity on one hand and power on the other ... mature cinema with something to say
- Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile, August 27, 2011
A beautifully observed and inspiring film
- Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile, August 27, 2011
A cloying racial melodrama that pulls its punches.
- Don Groves, sbs.com.au, August 23, 2011
"The Help" takes us on a pop-cultural tour that savors the picturesque, and strengthens stereotypes it purports to shatter.
- Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal, August 11, 2011
Thanks to a talented cast -- starting with leads Emma Stone, Viola Davis​ and Octavia Spencer​ -- the movie is often entertaining. But The Help should have been challenging too.
- Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post, August 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.
- Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader, August 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.
- Dana Stevens, Slate, August 11, 2011
We shake our heads, tut, and sympathise with the diversity-loving Skeeter. How much better a film would this have been if we were forced - yes, even unwillingly - to see a bit of ourselves in Hilly?
- Simon Miraudo, Quickflix, August 29, 2011
[The Help] is, in some ways, crude and obvious, but it opens up a broad new swath of experience on the screen, and parts of it are so moving and well acted that any objections to what's second-rate seem to matter less as the movie goes on.
- David Denby, New Yorker, August 10, 2011
MA15+
