Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling 2009 novel The Help shined on the silver screen this summer. Directed by Tate Taylor (Pretty Ugly People), the blockbuster stars Emma Stone (Easy A), Bryce Dallas Howard (Eclipse), Viola Davis (Doubt, Eat Pray Love), and Octavia Spencer (Dinner for Schmucks, Coach Carter) in this feel-good movie set in Mississippi during the 60s. This story mixes amazing themes of courage, triumph and prejudice with actual history.

Skeeter Phelan (Stone), the main character is an independent girl who wants to be a writer and does not exactly mix in well with the debutantes of Jackson. She comes from a good family, and like many southern families, they hire help. Constantine, the maid who raised Skeeter, was more compassionate than her mother who turned the maid away after becoming very close with the family. Her mother is only concerned with keeping up with the norms of society rather than doing what is right.

The maids are portrayed as kind women who have to raise white people’s children while their own children are struggling without them. Still, the help is treated badly, and not even allowed to use the same bathroom in most households.

As the heat in Jackson increases, so does the fight for civil rights. Aibileen (Davis) is reluctant at first to tell her side of the story to Skeeter who is writing a book which reveals how life truly is as a maid. Yet events cause Aibileen and her friend Minny (Spencer) to share their equally humorous and despairing stories despite how dangerous it would be if they were discovered.

Although this movie is based in history, the story is not dry or hard to relate to. In fact, people can better understand the society of the 60s and are able to feel as if the characters are coming to life. Viewers will find themselves cheering them on. This gem of a movie deserves four and a half stars out of five because the actors all do a wonderful job, and the dialogue is interesting and fast-moving. The Help leaves viewers with a powerful message that was not lost from the book.