This summer's film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel "The Help" is the talk of the town. Stockett's story follows black maids working in white people's homes in 1960s Jackson, Miss. Last weekend, the Disney/DreamWorks film topped the box office with a domestic total of more than $71 million since it opened.

After selling millions of copies in 35 countries, spending weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and surviving a lawsuit, "The Help" is many things to audiences.

Concerns about the continued "great white savior" film formula and the representation of black women as the "mammy" have been addressed by a host of critics from actors to the Association of Black Women Historians. Some call it a redeeming racial story, while others call it controversial.

The perspective depends on who's talking.

Pam Howard's book club watched the movie together. Last year, she suggested they add "The Help" to their reading list.

The maids' perspectives and the beliefs of people at that time interested Howard. She doesn't understand why some people are upset that the story is told through a white author.

"A lot of people didn't know that this went on, especially the younger generation, and it shows where our culture has come from," she said. "[Stockett] told something she felt was important and should be shared."

Others understand why some people have issues.

Shauntae Brown-White is an associate professor of communications at N.C. Central University. Now working on a book about black pastors' wives, she first read "The Help" because she wondered how a white woman would write in an African-American voice.

To Brown-White, the film and book portray friendly relationships between black women better than television often depicts them.

And while she thinks "The Help" is a well told story, she understands why it's controversial. The film doesn't relate nuances like the complexities of maids' families and marriages, and it doesn't delve deeply into their intrapersonal thoughts.

Nor does it depict much of the maids' lives as people outside of work

But more than anything else, Brown-White takes issue with the movie marketing. She would have liked to see more portrayal of the power white women had over maids, like preventing husbands from getting jobs.

She thinks had the story been written by a maid, it would not have received the green light or the same marketing budget.

"Although it did try to give maids a sense of community, Hollywood and the publishing industry are about money and not redeeming themselves," she said.

She also questions the period broken English of maids, saying that many black women who have never been to college still speak standard English, albeit sometimes in vernacular.

"They may have spoken like that in the 1850s but not the 1960s," she said.

While Brown-White watched "The Help," her grandmother, Leora Williams, 82, sat with her. Williams did domestic work in Raleigh during the 1940s starting at age 13.

She often worked for less than 50 cents an hour washing, ironing, cooking and cleaning houses for several families.

Williams enjoyed "The Help" and said that to her it was simply fact.

She related to a scene when the character Yule May kept a ring she found.

Williams said homeowners would often "try" her by putting hundreds of dollars in a drawer and have her clean around it. But she would never take anything.

And even though Williams would often listen to the problems of her employers, she could not use the upstairs bathrooms that she cleaned.

To Williams, a major concern was making sure she was at her bus stop before dark because black women walking alone after dark were often chased by white men. She said she had to finish work before dusk to stay safe.

"The film and book lets you know how far we have come," Williams said. "I know who I am. I can look back and say, 'Thank you, Lord. I'm not that anymore.'"