Viola Davis's Oscar Campaign Needs 'Help'

This week "The Help" crossed the $100 million dollar mark.  It shows once again that making smart films for older women is an untapped market that Hollywood needs to stop ignoring.  It's avoided a lot of controversy on the basis that people of different ages, colors, and genders love it.  It makes you feel good, but it doesn't sugarcoat things.  All these reasons make it one to watch for Best Picture, and few will argue that.  However, there IS an argument that is circling the web: Viola Davis's performance!  Many people agree that it is an Oscar worthy performance and worthy of a nomination.  The debate is this: Will be be nominated in the lead category or the supporting category?  I find this to be a stupid question to ask, but one that is being asked none-the-less.

Davis's character narrates the film.  The film opens with her.  It closes with her.  She is instrumental to getting Skeeters (Emma Stones character) book project off the ground.  She tells the most personal stories in the film.  In my mind there is no question: She is the lead performance in this film.  You can't even describe the film without mentioning her.  Yet the debate is that she might get put in the supporting category because its easier to win there.  That may be a good publicist move, but in my eyes its a huge disservice to what this film is trying to say.  I'm wondering if the irony of this debate has registered with anyone but me, but am I the only one who finds it odd that we're considering putting Davis in the supporting category when the film really is about her?  Isn't this the kind of lower class profiling that the film fights so hard against?

This whole movie is about black women making their voice heard in a world that is unwilling to listen to them.  That a white woman helps get their voice out does not take away from the fact that its their stories that are being told.  In a sense, that makes this movie their movie as well.  I don't mind Octavia Spencer getting all the buzz for being a potential nominee for Best Supporting Actress.  She deserves all the praise she's getting, but her part is much smaller compared to other characters in this film.  Davis though...without her character there is no movie.  Period.  It's really about her in every single way.  How society dictated what she does with her life.  The dilemma that she spends more time raising white kids then her own son.

That being a maid is not what she wants to do, but its the only thing she CAN do at this point!  It's her journey we sympathis most with.  If Davis does get an Oscar nomination she will have deserved it.  If she wins it will be because she gave the best performance of the year.  If it's in the supporting category though I think it will be a sad commentary on how much society REALLY views black women these days!