"The Help" did something unusual in the movie world last weekend. It moved into first place in the box office race in its second week, a sign that word of mouth has helped boost the flick about a group of African-American maids in Jackson, Miss., a half-century ago.
It's about more, of course, as their stories are told by a young white woman who dreams of being a writer, a white woman who is part of the upper crust of Jackson society.
I thought the movie was a mixed bag.
I found the stories of the maids compelling and sad, and some of their characters were well drawn, especially Octavia Spencer's Minny, and the true lead in this picture, Viola Davis' Aibileen. And there was an ultimate sense of triumph in the maids overcoming fear to have their stories written down by Emma Stone's free-spirited "Skeeter".
But I have to say I'm troubled by having a white woman serve as the maids' mouthpiece. I know, I know, in 1963 there wouldn't have been another way to get those stories out.
It's not 1963 anymore.
And then there's punchline of the entire movie (which I won't repeat so as to spoil it for those who haven't seen the movie). It's hilarious on first telling, but becomes repetitive as it turns into a motivating part of the plot.
The development of Skeeter's brief romance was a little hard to believe, as well. I don't like you, I love you, I don't like you anymore.
Still, I can't say I hated the movie – which was, by the way, based on the novel that was a big deal in book clubs.
When I posted a line on my Facebook wall after seeing it over the weekend, I got a lot of responses from women – yes, this movie seems to be marketed to women – with a range of opinions.
The book and the movie has prompted discussion on either side. There are those who love the movie and those who don't.
But the talk generated by "The Help" is the best part of the movie.
So where do you fall on the movie, which is being powered by all this talk? Thumbs up or thumbs down?
In case you haven't seen it, here's the trailer:
On radio: WJMR-FM (98.3), known to listeners as "Jammin' 98.3" is playing Michael Jackson music from 9 a.m. to noon on Monday to mark the late pop star's 53rd birthday.
- Sirius XM satellite radio is picking up the Weather Channel's feed as it covers the arrival this weekend of Hurricane Irene on the East Coast. It's on Sirius Channel 184/XM Channel 1.
- Departing WTMJ-AM (620) part-timer James T. Harris will start his full-time gig on Tucson's KQTH-FM on Oct. 3. KQTH, which calls itself "The Truth" is a sister station of 'TMJ.
- Cell phone networks were downed by this week's East Coast earthquake, but the National Association of Broadcasters' spokesman Dennis Wharton was tweeting about how radio was unaffected. "Cell phone down post DC quake, free and local broadcasters working. Really?"
A little something for the Gleeks: Fox has released its first promo for the next season of "Glee," which returns to Channel 6's lineup on Sept. 20.
Here you go:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
