My sons were in this sector and and struggled on a daily basis to perform their duties, no matter what B/S we hear from them this government this happened, and it was disgusting! This is extremely well acted, and from 2 of the best current actors in this country, both Comer and Graham are exceptional, and very ably supported by the rest of the cast.
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mattcording20 September 2021
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paul2001sw-119 September 2021The worst of all the mistakes of the COVID pandemic was surely the decision, taken in the UK and elsewhere, to discharge sufferers directly from hospital into unprotected care homes. That's the kind interpretation: the worse one is that, either consciously or subconsciously, the powers that be decided to write off the lives of the victims, their new co-residents, and the care workers, in the vain hope that this might isolate the problem. Jack Thorne's excellent drama 'Help' captures what it must have been like to live through this epidemic of death. A strong cast and some telling writing make for harrowing viewing; the care home owner is a particularly interesting role, although the focus is very much on Jodie Comer's and Stephen Graham's characters. What we don't see is the story from the point of view of the most vulnerable themselves; instead, Graham plays a younger man with a different (but less immediately lethal) weakness. But it's powerful stuff, and the best drama I've yet seen about the coronavirus crisis.
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nancyldraper3 October 2021Wow! This drama is a little too close to the truth. As I watched it, in Canada, we are entering the 20th month of the pandemic and what they are now calling the 4th wave. The pandemic is now a new way of life but this movie takes us back to the ignorance of those initial months and, I confess, I cringed at every false move we watched play out and relived some of the trauma I underestimated when going through it. The story is tender and terrifying. The performances are brilliant. Jodie Comer deserves highest accolades and awards for her delivery (for those who have only seen her perform in borrowed accents, it will be a treat to hear her speak in her own native, Liverpudlian accent). For those viewing this in the UK, this seems to trigger political outrage, but, I think, worldwide, we were staggering in the dark and I'm not convinced any political party would have charted a better course. We simply didn't know and were ill prepared. I give this film a 9 (superb) out of 10. {Drama}
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Just watched this on All4. Very powerful and emotional drama highlighting the plight most care homes faced as the services collapsed because of high volume of calls and lack of preparedness scandously neglected by the authorities and Government with regards to updated safety procedures and availability of PPE equipment. The GOV (Matt Hancock) lied saying these care homes were being prioritised and kept in special bubbles, when in reality they were forgotten. Great acting by the legendary Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer. Made my heart sink watching this.
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losanatuisawau-979-43524516 September 2021I can't exaggerate enough over how well this film was put together. Not only mentioning the fact Jodie Comer has yet again done an amazing job with this role but her and Stephen Graham's chemistry really brought the characters to life and showed us what it was like having dementia and caring for someone with dementia. Trust me, it's not easy.
Working in home care myself, i have been in the middle of the struggles working through the pandemic. For those who don't understand why carers don't get much recognition, the main reasons are in this film. Not only did they mention facts at the end, but also the true emotion of the monologue at the very end makes you realise how bad it is within the care industry. You know it's about to get real when Jodie comer breaks the fourth wall.
This film is such an eye opener, i would recommend it for anyone. And thank you Jodie comer and Stephen graham on your performances, pure talent. -
Just a powerful movie showing the situation in a elderly care house during covid outbreak. Been read news but can't imagine how brutal scenes it could be. All scenes are real I believed and painful when watching this. Good movie to bring is truth and reality. Real hero for what Sarah did and all nursing along.
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dianebrookes-3916016 September 2021I worked in a care home at covid time so I know what it was like and it was just like this show portrays Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham play their parts so well well done had me in tears going back to a time when the elderly was seriously let down.
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danhall76-925-37731817 September 2021Would have given this a 9 if not for the ridiculous last act. What were they thinking? Was very powerful and moving up to then.
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ellsiemai16 September 2021This piece of writing truly broke me inside and it made me feel so many things, anger being the main one. Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham's performance was nothing short of authentic and gut wrenching; they told this story with such care and honesty. They didn't shy away from the brutal truths of how the government really let the care home's down. The part on the radio where they were talking about how they had been looking after the carehomes really struck a nerve in me, it made me feel sick. The government is vile for letting these vulnerable human beings, these families in carehomes across the country, be totally pushed aside and left to rot. I thought Sarah's character was badass for taking Tony into her care and getting him out of a place that was only going to kill him. Tony was a beautiful character, I fell in love with him as much as I fell in love with Sarah. The part where he helps, you can see clear as day the man he truly is, he's a hero as Sarah said. Jodie Comer breaking the fourth wall at the end of the show hit me deeply, Sarah said is straight; we walk by these vulnerable people every single day and it's as if we don't have any humanity for them, it's sickening. Help when you can. Be better.
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AlienRefugee7 October 2021I'm not the only reviewer saying this, I know, but the final act of the movie / series is really unnecessary which is a shame. The writing is perfect up until that last part which seems a little rushed. I was hoping that the authorities were going to blast in and demand to know why Sarah was using a patient when she had no assistance and lecture her about the lack of PPE and various thins that she was unable to obtain due to the negligence of the health system... Instead we we end up with strange set of events that make us feel less supportive of the lead character.
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bryangary656 October 2021..fine drama about a topic we are all affected by
Comer was superb in her role and Graham is always watchable
Would have given the film an extra star but thought the last 30 minutes was a bit unbelievable. -
wakster16 December 2021I thought the last 20 minutes of this was where it all went wrong, the suspense really didn't work for me as the story just went really stupid.
I've worked in care for nearly 20 years and as much as you try to protect the residents, you never once think about kidnapping them, breaking out of the home and then breaking into a caravan.
Also I know for a fact that if I spoke to any of the bosses I have worked for like she did, I'd of been sacked on the spot, especially as it could quite easily of been heard by the residents. I know how hard care work can be, especially as staff constantly don't turn up for their shifts and you are left short. If the story had just carried on with the hardships of care work it would of hit home a lot harder than it did. A real shame as it really had an excellent ensemble of actors and touched upon many points of the way care homes are run, staff are treated and residents forgot about. -
rlbala17 September 2021A powerful film that shows the hard truth of how care homes were ignored and left to survive on their own.
Jodie Comer and Stephen Were phenomenal in their roles. The acting felt real. A true masterclass in acting and never sliding into over dramatic acting which I feel could have happened if they weren't these actors. Jodie and Stephen deserve all the awards.
Hard to watch but a must watch.
That one scene ( the night shift) that will stay with me for a long time. -
Sarah (Killing Eve and Free Guy's Jodie Comer) is hired as a care worker at Sunshine Homes. The job is relentless, demanding and unglamourous. They're still under-staffed, even following her arrival. Breakfast becomes a full-scale clean-up operation when a resident flings a bowl of cornflakes onto the floor.
There is always something that needs doing. But Sarah is happy to be there, satiated by a newfound sense of purpose. And crucially, she's good at her job. Until Covid-19 hits.
I found this film to be a hard-hitting and very well acted drama, with gripping social commentary on the pandemic. Jodie Comer delivers a fantastic performance as the lead. This is a film about Covid-19 which is gripping and intense without being offensive or distateful. It's not always an easy watch, but I recommend you do. -
gc-1736521 September 2021Have to agree with many other reviewers
This started off as an harsh look at what happened in care homes (around the world) during the Covid times then went completely off the rails in the last 25.minutes.
Really don't understand the meaning behind the end of the film except for saving someone but that was akilter to the first hour of the film
Should have stuck to the matter at hand and I would have scored it a 10. -
adambates916 September 2021'Help' is exactly as amazing and upsetting and important a watch as you think it will be...
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lucaschriskowalski22 November 20213/4 of the film is intense, really horrific and probably only scratching the surface of what actually happened in care homes. The last 20 minutes it went off the rails, the tone changed and it took away from the otherwise compelling storytelling.
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leavymusic-25 October 2021There appears quite few low ratings of Help by either people who didn't like the second act to the end, well it is a drama and I thought the second half brought it out well, no matter.
The other half of low raters are the ones who still don't believe Covid was a 'thing' btw it still is! It's shocking how many people died and how many walked around saying it was a hoax. Low on brains, certainly, selfish as it upsets there routines.
The film (a chan4 film) nothing to do with Hollywood, brings attention to the lies that the government told the nation in March 2020 concerning the help they were providing to care homes across the UK.
Reality was the Help (as seen here) didn't come until thousands of vulnerable people in care homes started dying from covid, finally, the government got the PPE (masks, gowns, gloves, anti-viral creams/drugs etc) to them, much to late. The 2nd item the film highlights is the miserable low wage that healthcare workers are paid, a almost thankless task relative to the Nhs Nurses, that the government year after year ignore but decide to thank them with universal aproved claps from the public, (yep! They did this) rather than provide them a good living wage.
The Film was made well & executed and directed with emotion & expertise, Jodie Comers role as the female care helper provided a convincing and powerful performance, co-star Stephen Grahman, by all rights is a Hollywood name on the grow but still loves to perform in gritty UK film & drama (and what a loss to us if he didn't) turned over another epic performance of a younger man with early on set dementia, a awful condition that usually strikes at old age, made all the more worse for younger people and families to cope with as it effects the persons mind and he or she's abilities to cope, without round the clock help.
This film shows what Brits do best, good quality down to earth, gritty and thoughful drama, Help no one is coming is a film everyone should see. -
Great acting as you would expect from the leads. This drama shows why it is important to focus on protecting the vulnerable as opposed to locking down everyone. 40% of people that died with covid were in care homes, the average age of someone dying from it being over 80.
A good drama like this highlights what a scandal lockdowns are and that they have been used as a tool for controlling gullible people rather than protecting them. -
RobTortureWright21 September 2021I'm truly shocked at just how emotional and frightening this film was.
To try and break down the emotions felt would take a while because for me personally it was a total overload of sadness, empathy, anxiety, and plenty more emotions that I've not felt watching a film for a long time.
'Help' starts with an excellent introduction to care home life and how truly resilient these carers have to be just to do their daily job, all while working for minimum wage. We see Stephen Grahams excellent acting shine and he honestly puts on one of his performances of his acting career here by playing Tony, an early onset dementia patient who is quick to anger due to his confusion but who is also a good, kind hearted man. Jodie Cormers character Sarah struggles to adjust to being a permanent care home worker and is overwhelmed with the pressure and stress that looking after very unwell patients can cause. This is on top of her dysfunctional home life which is put on full display here, especially her verbally abusive father who criticises her at every opportunity. There's a gritty realness to all of this that I enjoyed, it didn't feel acted it felt like this was their real lives.
When we approach the second third of Help the film switches gears and becomes honestly quite horrifying to watch, in fact if you played just this middle part alone and asked someone to tell you what genre of film it was almost everybody would say horror, but this is almost unbelievably based on real life. Sarah is left all alone to work throughout the night in a covid ridden care home while patients are dying around her and when one becomes clearly unwell she has to battle to try and help him all while getting no help from anyone, not even emergency services, this is scary to watch. To be all alone with no one to turn to in times of need is something everyone in this life dreads and it's portrayed in full effect here. The desperation that Sarah feels comes across so excellently that you start to feel the anxiety, frustration and panic that she had when nobody was coming to help the incredibly sick patients. She was forced to watch as everybody around her died slowly and painfully to Covid and I think we got to see how traumatising this is for care home workers, it really opens your eyes to what was going on around all of us not too long ago. Its shocking.
As we break through into the final chapter of the film we see Sarah kidnap Tony out of the care home where so much death and despair is occurring. These scenes are hard to watch because you know she is doing this for all the right reasons but you just know it isn't going to end well. The heart of the film shows when they both play cards at the caravan park where they've been hiding out and they speak on how they really care for each other. This is brutally snatched away from both of them when the police arrive and arrest Sarah. Tony is returned to the hell of a care home against his will to possibly die and Sarah is looking at prison time all because she took a stand when the government crumbled and failed her at every point. I think this film makes many things clear and exposes the utter catastrophe that happens when the people who run a country fail to help the people they govern. It also shows the horrifyingly destructive nature of the Corona virus and how it caused such pain and misery to everybody it grips ahold of. Clearly this is not a happy go lucky kind of film but if you want to watch a honest, gritty, emotion filled and excellently acted film that opens your eyes to the shocking hard reality of COVID-19 then this film is something you need to check out. As someone who's been watching films religiously for 20 years I can honestly say this is one of most hard hitting and impactful films I've ever seen. Shocking and scary at the same time. -
kalstras25 September 2021So much acting 🎠in the beginning. The young Alzheimer's guy would have been housed in secure young home and not an elderly care facility. Seriously. No way. He's a risk and wouldn't be there full stop. This is one of the most believable shows we've seen.
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dscanlon-7210117 September 2021I thought the first hour was very powerful and brought me back to the beginning of the pandemic but the ending lost its way and was unbelievable. Shame.
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michael-kerrigan-526-12497421 September 2021Just watched Help. Excellent. Thought it was a bit far fetched in the final third but the great acting by the ubiquitously brilliant Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer made up for that. Jodie Comer has earned Hollywood should she wish - I hope she doesn't go there... Think it would've been better as an hour long drama set in the care home only. Did not need the final third. Was enlightening though about the care profession and made me think. 8 out of ten.
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pauls-9540716 September 2021A cast of powerhouses bringing their absolute best.