4 stars****

Modern American society should be ashamed that a movie like The Help needs to be made. Showing when history went down a dreadful tunnel and that spirit cannot be broken, this well made movie should make you pick up the book (or your Kindle) and read for greater detail.

So what’s it all about?

Set in Mississippi during the 1960s, Skeeter is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends’ lives — and a Mississippi town — upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen, Skeeter’s best friend’s housekeeper, is the first to open up — to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community. Despite Skeeter’s life-long friendships hanging in the balance, she and Aibileen continue their collaboration and soon more women come forward to tell their stories — and as it turns out, they have a lot to say. Along the way, unlikely friendships are forged and a new sisterhood emerges, but not before everyone in town has a thing or two to say themselves when they become unwittingly — and unwillingly — caught up in the changing times.

Civil rights in the US were set for change in the 1960s, just a couple of hundred years too late. This movie exposes the racism faced by families as they tried to live lives dominated by another race. The few that tried to cross the block faced the wrath of both sides.

This slow starting movie gathers pace in its second hour as reality hits home to all involved. At the time, people perhaps don’t know how much the future was going to change, but change was inevitable.

Kathryn Stockett’s novel is a masterpiece, which her friend Tate Taylor turns into one of the year’s best movies. Well acted throughout and presenting a balanced view of all sides of the equation, it allows you to sympathise with the winning team, but never allows a moment of sympathy with the leading antagonist, as she fails to eat humble pie.

Sissy Spacek is in fine form as she turns the tables on her horrific daughter. The daughter plays the part so well it’s difficult not to believe that this portrays reality, not another farfetched story.

Viola Davis and Emma Stone turn in wonderful performances that wouldn’t be out of place on the list of top ten actors, come the early 2012 for 2011 awards.

4 stars****

This franchise continues Guy Ritchie’s excellent direction. If this film is successful (figures show it already is) then he’ll follow up with ‘The Real Rocknrolla’ and finally the trilogy closes with ‘Rocknroll Suicide.’ He’s the master of Brit mobster movies, even if he does have the occasional disappointment.

Stepping aside from Guy Ritchie’s directing work; he is a masterful screenplay writer. This is another of those movies where you can pick up a copy of the screenplay and put the movie into your mind as you read it. There’s a fair chance that you’d end up with the same movie these guys came up with.

While the Academy almost certainly won’t put this Guy Ritchie comedy/mobster screenplay on their final list, it does deserve to be at least, close. You can see that he has dissected every word that he crafted to leave just the bare bones, which means that every word counts.

Tom Wilkinson won applause for his ‘Full Monty’ performance and most definitely for the extraordinary ‘In the Bedroom’ with Sissy Spacek. In this movie, he deserves more praise; his portrayal of a mobster boss who doesn’t appear to essentially be involved directly with his squad’s interrogation techniques, is close to perfect. He may give the orders, but he talks to others.

Thandie Newton, one of many stars in both ‘Crash’ and ‘Mission Impossible II,’ demonstrates an outrageous charm as she fiddles the books for whoever will pay her as an up market accountant. She’ll steal from them by employing low level thugs and then go back for more. If she did make it to the end of the movie (and the gloves being worn by one of the Russian thugs suggests she won’t be) her role could become additionally riveting in franchise part 2.

I’m disheartened that I virtually missed new Bond girl Gemma Arterton as ‘June’ as I wondered what her skills were like before I see the new Bond movie next week. I’ll have to wait and see.

We saw the immense Gerard Butler in Nims Island earlier this year. This actor’s role was so far removed from his previous task, so as to prove his acting abilities show no boundaries, while Mark Strong knows that with his second in command performance, he’ll be back in charge in franchise 2 and, if he lives long enough (in the movie no-one is safe), in franchise 3.

The only person missing was footballer Vinnie Jones, although his acting years are becoming close to his football years, so we will at some stage call him actor, Vinnie Jones. Vinnie was a major player in early Guy Ritchie films, especially the film of 1999, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Two final points of major interest then:

One; no definite violence is in fact, seen. Show and not tell is used to mammoth proportions. You see the golf club going down on the man’s legs. You don’t see it really hit the legs, but you do know his legs will be broken. You may see the blood hit the wall, but you don’t see the bullet going into, through and out the opposite side of the soon to be corpse.

Two; Guy Ritchie, via both films schools of high note (Dov S-S Simens and Elliot Grove’s Raindance) is an excellent screenplay writer. This script is one of the best in years. It’s an excellent example of how to re-write until you assemble all that the experts will charge you to find out. It’ll be used as an illustration of clear writing at future film schools.

I hope his divorce from Madonna doesn’t slow down his output.