Enormously talented cast gives 'The Help' vitality

One of the year's best films leads these new Blu-rays and DVDs that have arrived this week.

"The Help" (Touchstone/DreamWorks/Blu-ray + DVD, 2011, PG-13, two discs, $39.99). This adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's popular civil rights-era novel doesn't soar quite as high as, say, "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Sounder" or "Malcolm X," suffering as it does from some awkward directing choices and overly familiar stereotypes. But it boasts enough insightful individual moments and is so moving in general that it seems like quibbling to complain.

Still, it must be said that it's hard to imagine the film succeeding as well as it does without the enormously talented cast gathered here, which is primarily responsible for the film's juice.

Emma Stone plays the main character (essentially Stockett), a naive young white woman who returns home from college and finds herself appalled by the way the women in her circle treat their black maids. The country is on the cusp of big changes and tensions are on the rise, so Stone decides to push things along by interviewing the maids for a book, oblivious to the dangerous doors she's opening for them.

Stone may have the lead role but it's Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer whose performances anchor the piece, as the two primary maids under the microscope. Special mention should also be made of Jessica Chastain who brings depth to what could have been a superficial white-trash outcast, and Bryce Dallas as the worst of Stone's entitled friends.

Extras: widescreen, Blu-ray and DVD versions, deleted scenes, featurettes, trailers (also on three-disc Blu-ray Combo with Blu-ray, DVD and digital versions, $44.99, and on single-disc DVD, $29.99)

"Life, Above All" (Sony Classics/Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack, 2011, PG-13, two discs, $45.99). This South African film is tremendously emotional but never mawkish as it follows a 12-year-old girl forced to grow up too fast when her baby sister dies, and her mother is paralyzed by grief and her stepfather by drink. When a horrible rumor about the family begins to circulate, she feels compelled to do something. But this isn't the downer that synopsis suggests. A powerful film that deserves to be seen.

Extras: widescreen, Blu-ray and DVD versions, in Northern Sotho with English subtitles, featurette, trailers