Moms at the Movies - Advance Screening of The Help

On Thursday evening, the momstown Calgary moms had the privilege of attending an advance screening of The Help at CrossIron Mills.

The movie is based on the best selling book "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.  For those who are not familiar with the story, the book and movie are set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s, during the heart of the civil rights movement.  The book and movie explore both the lives of the African American maids who worked in white households at the time, and of the white women who employed them.  Themes of race, social class, courage, prejudice, and the roles of women are all explored.

I often have difficulty deciding whether I should first read a book, or see its movie adaptation.  While I prefer to read the book first in order to develop my own sense of the setting and characters, when I do read the book first I often find myself disappointed by what has been omitted or changed in the film version.  Having not read the book when momstown Calgary was invited to attend the advance screening, I again struggled with whether I should read the book prior to seeing the movie, and in this circumstance I chose to view the movie first.

From the perspective of someone who has not read the book, I found the movie to be stunning.  It was both laugh out loud funny, and gut wrenchingly sad.  More than a few of us sobbed through some of the scenes.  It is exactly the sort of movie that you want to see with girlfriends, and talk about with them after.  It is one of the few movies I have seen recently that I want to watch again, both because I enjoyed it so much, and because I want to make sure that I didn't miss any of the nuances in the stories that were told.  I am looking forward to reading the book, and discovering more about each of the women's stories.

Thank you Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Canada for the passes, and thank you momstown Calgary moms for a wonderful evening out with friends!