Viola Davis knew she had big shoes to fill when she agreed to play the role of a lowly black maid to a rich white family in 1960s Mississippi in The Help.

They included those of her mother, her late grandmother and thousands of African-American women who were maids themselves, many of whom would rather forget those years. Although Davis is now neck-and-neck with Meryl Streep for the best actress Oscar, she says her mother has yet to see The Help.

"It's painful. You have a whole generation of women who don't want to be reminded of the past," Davis, 46, said.

Therein lies the paradox at the heart of The Help and its chances for Oscars. It was a surprise summer box-office hit that exposed old, but not forgotten, racial divides in the United States. Its popularity could cause Oscar voters to choose it as the year's best movie, but the ugly history it replays might make them look the other way and cast a ballot for another nominee, especially frontrunner romance, The Artist.

Based on the 2009 best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett, The Help is the tale of a young white woman in Jackson, Mississippi, who in 1963 asks African-American maids to help her write a book about their experiences working for white families in the early stages of the civil rights movement.

Reuters