Emma Stone (front) with Alllison Janney.
Oprah must be kicking herself. Her show went off the air before she could devote a very special episode to the female-centered civil rights drama “The Help.” Performances by Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Emma Stone certainly merit that kind of attention. The movie, unfortunately, does not.
This flawed adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel about black maids and their white employers in early-1960s Jackson, Miss., aims for “To Kill a Mockingbird” significance, but lands in “Steel Magnolias” territory. Like that weepy ’80s flick, it portrays Southern women: their unspoken rivalries and alliances, sugary cruelty and don’t-eff-with-me breaking points.
Maids Aibileen Clark (Davis) and Minny Jackson (Spencer), as well as aspiring journalist Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Stone), live in a world of predetermined roles, none of which fit them well.
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Back in Jackson after graduating from Ole Miss, Skeeter squirms as her now-married college roommate Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas
Howard, cartoonishly villainous) talks of “the colored problem” and lobbies for segregated bathrooms in every house.
Skeeter is more interested in secretly interviewing Aibileen, who works for a friend, about the humiliations of life as a maid in the Deep South. A New York book editor (Mary Steenburgen) has given Skeeter a cautious go-ahead, advising her to get the project done “before this civil rights thing blows over.” And she wants interviews with lots more maids.
Aibileen, whose grown son was killed by racist negligence, reluctantly begins pouring her heart out. The granddaughter of a slave, she’s raised 17 white children in households where she couldn’t use the front door or eat off the same dishes. She tries to teach them tolerance, but then they grow up to emulate their parents.
Davis brings as much nuance as she can to this martyrish role. The animated Spencer has most of the fun as Minny, a cook with a fiery temper. Working at Hilly’s, Minny knows the white commode is off-limits — but balks when ordered to use the outhouse in a tornado.
Fired, Minny goes to work for Celia (Jessica Chastain), a Marilyn Monroe-esque newcomer from the dirt-poor town of — surely there’s a country song about this? — Sugar Ditch. She’s married to Hilly’s wealthy ex-boyfriend and has thus made an enemy of the most powerful mean girl in Jackson.
Minny has, too — she can’t resist getting even with her ex-boss using a nasty prank that may put weaker-stomached audience members off chocolate pie forever.
She’s justifiably worried about reprisal, though the film minimizes the racial violence in Stockett’s novel. Learning of Hilly’s comeuppance, her spitfire mother (Sissy Spacek) gleefully cackles: “Run, Minny! Run!” It’s hilarious—unless you reflect on what happened to black people who didn’t run fast enough in Mississippi.
The murder of black civil rights activist Medgar Evers, and other injustices, persuade additional maids to tell their stories to Skeeter, who’s coping with a cancer-riddled mom (Alison Janney), a weirdly ambivalent suitor (Chris Lowell) and the mystery of what happened to her own family’s maid, Constantine (Cicely Tyson, barely seen).
Director Tate Taylor is a childhood friend of Stockett and hasn’t done much else, which may be why “The Help” feels clumsy but well-intentioned.
The best moments here are not the big revelations but the intimate details. One of them is a speech about the many uses for Crisco. Apparently, it can fix everything from squeaky door hinges to under-eye circles — too bad it can’t smooth over clunky directing.
“The Help” is like a lot of Southern fare made with Crisco: you’ll want to gobble it up, but it’s not particularly nourishing.
sstewart@nypost.com