Despite the fact that the film has the habit of becoming quite corny in parts, the true cinephile does not have to look very far to find the powerful, sad and important message that constitutes the core of the wonderful film. The cast does a very good job and there are some extremely strong performances here by Davis, Howard and Chastain. Emma Stone does a good job too, but there role is quite shallow in the first place as she serves as the axis of the narrative and therefore remains neutral to some extent.

It is a shame though that Hollywood is never confident enough to make a film about racial minorities without making a white person the protagonist anyway. Once again, the white (wo)man saves the of the hapless minorities. I just wish there would have been one or two characters in the film who resist the racial oppression as powerful as Skeeter does, because as we all know, no one saved the black minority from their terrible fate, they fought their way out on their own.

Still, the film works as a powerful and multi-faceted narrative and has gorgeous production values, awesome costumes and sets. The direction is straight-forward and non-intrusive, always giving space for the scenes, long shots and dialogues to unfold.