the help: the movie

I saw The Help with some girlfriends earlier this week. It was really good! I cry all the time at movies. Of course I was a blubbering idiot at this one but could sense I wasn't alone. I could hear quite a bit of sniffling through the mainly female audience. There were so many touching parts! Plus, I read the book and felt that much more connected to the characters and their stories. I know. I'm weird. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would suggest seeing it (bring your tissues!).

BUT......

I'm not much of a book reader, so please excuse my lengthy rant. I am new to the disappointment that comes from a movie falling short of my literary expectations. I really enjoyed the movie, but it just wasn't as good as I had hoped (i.e. the book). I hyped it up too much in my head and was a little let down by the final product. I know it must be difficult to boil down hundreds of pages into a couple hours on the screen but I would have liked to see it better organized and complete. I know why they omitted many parts of the story but I feel like some were critical to the plot and some of the ones they left in were silly and disjointed. For example, I wish they had included more of the love story with the main character--not just because I happen to enjoy romances but I think it really highlighted how she grew and changed.

I was also a little disappointed with Emma Stone's performance. I made the mistake of seeing a preview for the movie a couple months ago, finding out that she was playing the lead character, then reading the book. Instead of creating a character in my head based on the author's description, I just inserted Emma Stone in the story as it went along. In my mind she was excellent. Of course the actress's onscreen version was going to fall short of the role she played in my head. Regardless, I thought she did a pretty good job and I look forward to seeing her in more movies. While I think she was a good choice for the main role, I think some of the other casting choices were a bit off, particularly the main character's mother.

But don't listen to my negativity. The book is excellent. The movie is good. Experience both.

There were several good previews at the beginning of the movie too, namely a couple featuring the [insert desirable adjective here] Ryan Gosling. I've loved him since The Notebook and am thoroughly looking forward to ogling seeing him on the big screen more often. Drive and The Ides of March (hello! George Clooney too!) will be on my movie list come cooler fall weather.