The Help

You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

Finally. A movie that lives up to the book.

A couple of years ago when I first saw the cover for The Help in a bookstore, I scratched my head. I was in Athens, Georgia doing a book signing at the B&N (or was it a Borders?) and the staff there were all wearing buttons to push The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (a book I haven't read yet but have always admired the title even if its just because someone convinced someone at marketing to go with that mouthful). But I digress. I had to stop and pick up The Help, just because the title was so unusual. After reading the back cover, I realized help wasn't a verb, but a noun. The premise of the book intrigued me and a couple of months later I bought the book on my Kindle. I absolutely loved it. I laughed, I cried, I was rapt with attention from cover to cover. I told everyone I knew about the book and convinced my book club to read it. They all loved it too.

Then I heard they were making it into a movie and I was skeptical. Because we all know what Hollywood does to books we love. They change things around (including endings) and mess with the author's words and characters until you don't even recognize the story anymore. But I had hope. I saw the trailers and loved the actresses who were playing all the key characters and I thought, why not give the movie a try? The day after the film came out I went to see it with my two daughters (who had also read the book at my recommendation). We all loved it. We all laughed. We all cried. We were all rapt with attention from the second it began to the second it ended. I loved it so much, I then went to see the movie again the following weekend with my sister. If someone calls me right now and asks me to go to the movies to see it a third time, I'll be there. It will also be part of my DVD collection the day it comes out. I truly hope Viola Davis gets a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role as Aibileen because she totally deserves it.

Have you seen the movie yet? Have you read the book? What movies from books have seen and loved? Or hated?

Maria Geraci writes fun, romantic women's fiction. The Portland Book Review calls her latest novel, THE BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH CLUB, "immensely sexy, immensely satisfying and humorous." Check out her website at www.mariageraci.com.