thoughts on The Help (spoilers on both the book and movie)

The main realization that both Skeeter and Aibileen come to at the end of the book The Help is that things aren't the same everywhere, and they don't have to stay the same in Jackson, either. It is fairly shocking and profound for Skeeter to realize that she can just leave Jackson-- that there are places in the world where Hilly Holbrook doesn't run the show, and she can have a completely different kind of life. It's the same type of thing when Aibileen gets fired; she has been a maid for her entire adult life and has assumed she would be forever, but now that's all over, and she's going to have to do something else, and that might be okay. I sort of wish, both in the book and the movie, that we would have gotten a similar revelation from Hilly, or at least more of a sense that she realized that things were changing, and it was beyond her control. I feel like, even though she somewhat got her comeuppance (moreso in the movie than in the book), and was perhaps knocked down a peg or two, she still was under the impression that she was mostly in control of things.

I'm also not sure how to feel about the fact that more people don't stand up to Hilly. Skeeter does; Minny does; both Hilly's mother and Skeeter's mother do (again, moreso in the movie than in the book). I guess this is not so much a problem with the story as me just trying to determine whether or not this is actually the way the world works. I guess my thing is that I am far from the most confrontational person in the world, but I will certainly say something if someone *right in front of me* is doing or saying something that is clearly very wrong. I think the book and the movie both would say that this is rare; in the movie, Skeeter's mother, Charlotte, tells Skeeter how brave she is, and that she hadn't had the strength to be that brave. If this actually is as rare as the movie suggests, then that bothers me quite a bit. I guess my frustration, here, is wanting many of the characters to be better, or to rise more to the occasions presented to them; I was disappointed in Stuart, for example, when he reacted so badly when Skeeter told him what she had written. I was disappointed in Elizabeth for firing Aibileen basically just because Hilly told her to. On the one hand, I feel like I wanted a happier ending than what maybe would have been realistic; on the other hand, I don't feel like it's that unrealistic to want people to do the right thing. Hmm.

I guess it's a good sign, though, that I'm responding more to the ideas presented in the book/movie than to the book/movie itself. Because honestly, I enjoyed both the book and movie quite a bit; I thought the performances from pretty much all of the actresses in the movie were incredibly impressive, and I thought they did a good job adapting the book into the movie. I didn't have a problem with much of what they cut or changed, though I do wish they would have done more to establish (in the movie) that Hilly, Elizabeth, and Skeeter were incredibly tight lifelong friends prior to the events in the story; in the book, Hilly and Elizabeth *genuinely are* happy for Skeeter when she gets the job at the newspaper, and Hilly *really is* trying to do something nice for Skeeter by setting her up with Stuart. I feel like since they didn't make it clear how close they all were, it also wasn't all that clear what was at stake for Skeeter; she's just losing some friends who were jerks in the first place, so good riddance.

So, bottom line: liked the book, liked the movie possibly even more than the book. Was disappointed with aspects of the story in both, but only because I wanted/expected more from the characters.

thoughts on Rise of the Planet of the Apes (some spoilers)

First, of course, previews: For those curious, I still grin from ear to ear every time I see Michael Vartan, a.k.a. Agent Vaughn from Alias. And he's going to be in a movie! Colombiana, with Zoe Saldana! Yaay! Other memorable previews: Contagion, starring Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow, which I will not be seeing on the grounds that it looks scary; and Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, which I inexplicably want to see even though it involves a bunch of robots fighting each other.

Okay, so I thought Rise of the Planet of the Apes was pretty awesome, in spite of the fact that most of the human characters in this movie are either stupid, mean, or a dangerous combination of both. Like, even one of the nicest and smartest among them (James Franco's character, Will), does some pretty dumb crap in this movie, including (but not limited to) testing the new, unapproved Alzheimer's medication he has developed ON HIS OWN FATHER and letting a chimpanzee live with him, in his house, for several years and not getting, until the chimpanzee LITERALLY LEARNS TO TALK AND CAN SPELL IT OUT FOR HIM, that wild animals belong in the wild. Also-- check this out. The company that Will is developing the medication for shuts down the project, which is what leads Will to start testing it on his own father. He eventually tells his boss what he has done, and that while his father eventually stopped responding to the drug and started getting worse very quickly, he has modified the drug and thinks he can make it work. His boss's response? Something along the lines of, "Awesome! Let's get some more apes in here and start testing it, then!" WHAT?! Like, shouldn't Will face some repercussions, legal or otherwise, for giving someone unapproved, illegal drugs? And even if his boss doesn't have a problem with the unsanctioned experiments, shouldn't he at least want to see some data about how this stuff works instead of just taking Will's word for it?

In other words, much of what happens in this movie is completely ridiculous. And yet...I had a good time. It was extremely fast-paced; this movie takes place over the course of several years, and a lot happens, yet it never feels rushed-- there's just never a dull moment. The apes themselves (particularly Caesar, the ape that Will takes home) are pretty sympathetic characters; most of the humans in this movie are, as previously noted, so dumb and/or mean that you kind of want the apes to "win" the movie.

Actually, the theme that keeps coming up over and over throughout this movie is simply that you can't control nature, and you're dumb if you try. This is illustrated in multiple ways throughout the movie, but most clearly and effectively near the end of the movie, when the apes have all gotten incredibly smart from Will's drug and are running wild through the streets of San Francisco; everyone seems to think they can just rein them in like you would a large, violent stampede of humans, while I'm sitting there thinking, "JUST LET THEM GET TO THE REDWOOD FOREST, LET THEM HAVE IT, AND HOPE FOR THE BEST!" Because of what is revealed in the closing credits (which I won't give away, but trust me, just stay in your seat after you think the movie has ended), and because there will almost certainly be a sequel to this movie, we know that the best will likely not happen; however, it's fairly clear that there comes a point when you just need to let things be.

So, bottom line: in spite of the ridiculousness of much of this movie, the filmmakers create a scenario that, if real, actually would be legitimately terrifying. I liked it.