The Help (2011) ***

There are a few weak and unconvincing scenes (especially Constantine's firing and Stuart breaking up with Skeeter), but otherwise it's an engrossing, moving and biting drama about racial and class conflicts in Mississippi in the 1960's. Bryce Dallas Howard is particularly good as a racist Southern bitch who gets her just desserts (quite literally, actually). Jessica Chastain is quite moving as a young trophy wife cruelly ostracized by all women in town. Viola Davis's Oscar-nominated performance is flawless, but it's actually a supporting role, with less screen time than Olivia Spencer, who won as Best Supporting Actress (while Davis was inexplicably nominated as Best Actress, and lost to Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady").