The film features an ensemble cast, including Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, Cicely Tyson, and Sissy Spacek.

In an attempt to become a legitimate journalist and writer, Skeeter decides to write a book from the point of view of the maids, exposing the racism they face as they work for white families.

DreamWorks Pictures acquired the screen rights to Stockett's novel in March 2010 and quickly commissioned the film with Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, and Brunson Green as producers.

Aibileen's best friend, Minny Jackson, works for Mrs. Walters and her manipulative daughter Hillary "Hilly" Holbrook, who leads the women's socialite group.

Elizabeth and Hilly's mutual friend Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is an unmarried aspiring writer, recent graduate of Ole Miss who has been rejected by Elaine Stein, an editor at Harper & Row NYC.

Securing a local job writing a housekeeping column, she witnesses the city's systemic racism and the demeaning mistreatment of maids.

Hilly vindictively renders Minny unemployable by spreading the lie that she stole from her, forcing her teenage daughter to quit school to work.

Celia Rae Foote, a pregnant housewife ostracized by the socialites, seeks a maid for her massive house in Madison and she cannot cook.

Elaine Stein tells Skeeter she needs many more maids' stories for the book but fear of retribution prevents others from coming forward.

Skeeter slow-walks a piece in the Junior League newsletter on the "separate but equal" bathrooms for Hilly, instead submitting an embarrassing misprint.

Panicked, Hilly threatens to sue Skeeter for libel, but backs down when she realizes she would have to publicly admit to the pie story.

Johnny tells Minny he knows she has been working at their house and promises her permanent job security, so she and her children can leave her abusive husband.

In December 2009, Variety reported that Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe would produce a film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's historical fiction novel The Help (2009), under their production company 1492 Pictures.

[8] The first casting news for the production came in March 2010, when it was reported that Emma Stone was attached to play the role of Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan.

In order to convince producers to shoot in Greenwood, Tate Taylor and others had previously come to the town and scouted locations; at his first meeting with DreamWorks executives, he presented them with a photo album of potential filming spots in the area.

[22] The 12-track collection, collated by music supervisor Jennifer Hawks,[23] features songs from the likes of Johnny Cash, Frankie Valli and Ray Charles.

[26] The score album, featuring original cues composed and conducted by Thomas Newman was released by Varèse Sarabande on September 6, 2011.

Both the two-disc and three-disc combo packs include the same features as the DVD version, as well as "The Making of 'The Help': From Friendship to Film", "In Their Own Words: A Tribute to the Maids of Mississippi", and three deleted scenes with introductions by director Taylor.

Genoveva Islas-Hooker charmed guest judge Doc Hendley (founder of Wine to Water) with her story, A Heroine Named Confidential.

A case manager for patients with HIV, Islas-Hooker was consistently inspired by one special individual who never gave up the fight to live.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Though arguably guilty of glossing over its racial themes, The Help rises on the strength of its cast – particularly Viola Davis, whose performance is powerful enough to carry the film on its own.

Wilson Morales of Blackfilm.com gave the movie three out of four stars and commented, "With powerful performances given by Viola Davis and scene stealer Octavia Spencer, the film is an emotionally moving drama that remains highly entertaining.

"[49] A more mixed review from Karina Longworth of The Village Voice said: "We get a fairly typical Hollywood flattening of history, with powerful villains and disenfranchised heroes.

"[51] Referring to the film as a "big, ole slab of honey-glazed hokum", The New York Times noted that "save for Ms. Davis's, however, the performances are almost all overly broad, sometimes excruciatingly so, characterized by loud laughs, bugging eyes and pumping limbs.

Chris Hewitt of the St. Paul Pioneer Press said about the film: "Some adaptations find a fresh, cinematic way to convey a book's spirit but The Help doesn't.

"[53] Ida E. Jones, the national director of the Association of Black Women Historians, released an open statement criticizing the film, stating "[d]espite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers."

In the original novel, Pascagoula, the Phelan family's maid, is the one watching the Medgar Evers address, introducing her into the narrative, whereas, in the film, Skeeter is at the forefront, placing her as the primary audience of civil rights news.

In an interview with The New York Times, Viola Davis mentioned that she regretted playing the role of Aibileen: "I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn't the voices of the maids that were heard.

"[58] Film historian Allison Graham writes about this in her article "We Ain't Doin' Civil Rights", commenting that "The (con)fusion of fictional and historical events begin to operate under a different narrative license.

[60] Viola Davis has repeatedly expressed regret over starring in The Help,[61] claiming she feels like she "betrayed myself and my people" and that the film was "created in the filter and the cesspool of systemic racism".