Review: Jodie Comer is Electrifying In Help

A friend of mine told me about this TV drama movie starring the brilliant Jodie Comer of ‘Killing Eve’ fame. All I knew was that it was about a Care Home during the pandemic but with her involved I thought it would probably be very good. She has a trusted record for really getting into character and this topic was close to my heart as I used to work through weekends and holidays in a Care Home. Here is my review of Jodie Comer in ‘Help!’

‘Help!’ is the story of a woman looking for a job and managing to get one working for a Care Home. She was a natural with the residents, who happened to include Tony, a character with dementia played by Stephen Graham (White House Farm).

A gripping drama based on reality, with fictional characters. Help movie review.

Jodie said in an interview that she was looking for a chance to work with Stephen and they were both really pleased to be able to keep their Liverpudlian accents whilst in these roles. Stephen’s character had early onset dementia and so was often confused about whether or not his mother was alive. He spent lots of time trying to escape the Home and get back to the home he used to share with her. Meanwhile, covid was starting to show up on the news and Care Homes started scrabbling around for basic protection. This showed how creative care workers had to be as there was a widespread shortage of PPE. Wearing builders’ masks and bin bags, carers had to do their best to carry on looking after residents without safety measures to prevent them from catching this awful bug.

Realistic Performance

Jodie’s character had a difficult family and really needed this job but didn’t expect to find herself working alone one evening. Her boss was at home ill and her other colleague didn’t show up for the night shift. Struggling to manage a Covid patient, she roped Tony in to help her.

Some close camera work followed her emotional rollercoaster as she did her best to try and get an ambulance and continuously had NHS 111 on speakerphone in her pocket while she looked after residents, desperate for assistance. Her family had preferred that she didn’t work in care but it was clear that this was where she belonged.

Covering the crisis in care very realistically, this TV drama is 98 minutes long and very powerful. It reminds us how Covid patients in hospitals were offloaded onto Care Homes and left to transmit the disease in a setting where there was little defence. Residents were not allowed to have visitors and some relatives came to speak to them through the windows. The dire situation was worsened as staff became ill and staff shortages increased many times over.

In A Nutshell

Jodie and Stephen did a great job of portraying characters who provided an insight into this very recent, very troubling period. You may be used to Jodie Comer doing accents, but this time she used her own. Not only did I feel the acting was magnificent but it also made me feel so sad that so many families had to go through such traumatic times.

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18 thoughts on “Review: Jodie Comer is Electrifying In Help

  1. This sounds so interesting! Though I feel like I’m not quite ready to watch things about Covid yet, but will come back to this int he future.

    Corinne x

  2. Hi Jamie,

    Great review, thanks. I remember seeing this advertised and thinking that it would be good viewing … and promptly forgot about it! Thank you for the reminder – I’ll see if I can find it on catch-up.

  3. I watched Help! over the weekend and really enjoyed how realistic the portrayal of the pandemic was. I found the ending to be rather strange though, it didn’t really seem the right fit for the story!

  4. Help was amazing and amazingly heart breaking at the same time. The fact that our government still hasn’t been held to account for deliberately making decisions they knew would kill people, disgusts me. The fact that they’re still the favoured party is also disturbing

  5. This sounds like a very powerful and at the same time very heartbreaking drama to watch. My flatmates suggested it to me but havent had the time to watch it yet. I am even more convinced though to watch it now!

  6. This sounds like a show that I really need to check out. My mother is actually a personal support worker. Due to that, I have heard a lot about the struggle that COVID brought from her point of view. Luckily, she works more with in-home care for specific individuals, so she wasn’t facing the incredible demand that was dumped on those working in retirement homes and care facilities. I can only imagine how hard it all was on them both physically and mentally. My heart goes out to everyone that was impacted.

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