Book vs. Movie: "The Help"

In Jackson, Mississippi in 1963, Skeeter Phelan
(Emma Stone, left), Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer, center)
and Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) build an unlikely friendship
 around a secret writing project in “The Help.”
©DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC.

A reader recently emailed me with a good question. When applicable (and it seems to always be these days), do you judge a film based on how compares to its source material -- be it a book, play, graphic novel, whatever -- or do you judge it on its own merits, without consideration to its roots?

Honestly, I didn't have a strong opinion either way. If I knew the source material--and liked it--then it mattered. Or not.  But when "The Help" came along, I made up my mind.

Knowing I would be reviewing the film in August, I picked up a copy of "The Help" in July, fully expecting an insult to my intelligence. Instead I was captivated. In fact, I had what I would call a bit of a claustrophobic attack as I finally understood on an emotional level just how trapped the African American characters were. I knew all about Jim Crow, segregation and lynchings---but I never really understood how living under that oppression might feel it until I read "The Help."

Because I was scheduled to interview the book's author, Kathryn Stockett, and Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays Hilly Hollbrook in the film, I needed to see the movie before I was able to finish the book. In fact, I was about 30 pages from the end, so when I sat down in the theater that weekday morning, all I could think about was where I'd left Aibileen and Milly on paper, and how their world was different or the same in the movie that was unfolding before me. It was the most distracted I'd ever been watching a film and I knew before I got to my car that I'd need to see it again before I wrote my review.

By the time that second viewing came around I'd long finished the book and was able to see the movie with a fresh perspective. Instead of noting all the similarities and differences, I focused on the story being told on screen -- and I liked it a lot more than I did the first time around.

So, in answer to the reader's question, I now say this: If you have the option, see the movie first. Then read the source material. Chances are, you'll be distracted from neither and remain fair. At least that 's how I'm going to do it from here on out, which works out well since I barely have time to read these days anyway!

Here's my review of "The Help" and my interview with Kathryn Stockett and Bryce Dallas Howard.

I also reviewed "30 Minutes or Less" this week (in Friday's paper), but if you are contemplating seeing that, I recommend reading a book -- any book--instead.