Heartwarming / The Help

• "You is smart. You is kind. You is important."
  • Hell, just the whole relationship between Mae Mobley and Aibileen counts. That girl does not get enough attention from her mother and turns to Aibileen as a surrogate mom. In the book, this culminates in Mr. Leefolt telling his wife to move her to another class after she plays a somewhat racist game with her brother.
  • In the movie, there's one scene where Aibileen protected Mae Mobley while a tornado passed by.
  • Also in the movie, after her mother passes her on to Aibileen, Mae Mobley says "You're my real Mama Aibee."and embraces her.
• Mr. Johnny wondering why Celia Foote isn't happy when that's all he wants from her. He doesn't care that she can't cook or take care of the house. It turns out it's because Celia's experienced multiple miscarriages.
  • When the secret does come out, the two reconcile and Johnny's happy that Minny was there to save her life.
• Mrs. Phelan encouraging Skeeter to go to New York, on the basis that she's decided not to die from her cancer.
• The flashback with Constantine comforting a teenage Skeeter, who hasn't been asked to a local dance on the basis that she's "ugly".
  • The novel's description of her has this make much more sense: she's tall, skinny, and awkward with uncontrollably frizzy hair and sharp features. Her nickname came about because her brother thought she more resembled a mosquito, or skeeter, than a baby when she was born.
• Aibeleen's church shouldering the burden of paying for Yule May's sons to go to college due to the fact that their court expenses were high enough to clean out their college fund.
• In the book, Skeeter is approached by another woman, Lou Ann, who tells her that Hilly is telling all the women to fire their maids, even though Lou Ann is one of the few women whose maid speaks positively about her. Lou Ann then tells Skeeter that she'd never fire her maid, because this maid has been her lifeline through her battle with depression and suicidal thoughts.
• When Hilly has Yule May arrested and sent to prison, Aibeleen and Milly look on in shock and horror, and as do the rest of the maids. When Skeeter next meets with them, however, it's not just them she sees. It is every single working maid, who simply refuse to let that stand without saying their piece. Also doubles as a Moment of Awesome.
• A story told by one of the maids that roughly went along these lines: she took a shortcut everyday to work through a field, and one day, the owner of the field threatened to kill her if she ever walked through it again. So her boss bought the field just so she could take her shortcut in peace.
• On their first meeting, Celia assumes that Minny is going to reject her job offer. When Minny doesn't, Celia yells in glee and hugs Minny. Sends nothing but good vibes to the audience. Also doubles as a Funny Moment.
  • During Minny and Celia's first meeting, Celia immediately gets Minny a bottle of Coke. Most of the woman in Jackson probably wouldn't even get a glass of tap water for a woman they were interviewing for a maid's position and it wouldn't just be offered, but Celia gets Minny a soda (which is definitely more expensive than water) without Minny even asking for anything while Celia drinks one herself. It's a subtle way the film let's the audience know that Celia is good-natured and out of all the women in Jackson is the one who treats her maid most like her equal.
  • She also insists on giving her bus fare, even after thinking Minny is turning the job offer down.
• Celia's interaction with Minny in general. While it's clear on Minny's end that she's tolerating Celia's antics, Celia treats Minny less like a domestic servant and more like a friend from the very start.
  • At the benefit, Celia gleefully says Minny's name upon seeing her pie for auction and signs herself up for it.
  • Minny shows that she does care for Celia too when she hears Celia knock something over and suspects Celia's hurt herself, so she breaks the bathroom door open, then can only stare in horrified silence as she sees Celia kneeling in a pool of blood, then comforts Celia. Note this is Minny we're talking about, yet she's a mother too and takes care of Celia when she needs it most.
• Johnny coming to Celia's rescue when Hilly viciously rips into her during the Charity Event.
• A minor one, but Yule May in prison reading the book to her cellmates and laughing their asses off over the story of the pie. This is a lovely indication that life may not have gone the way she planned, but it's not so cruel that she can't find comfort or friendship during her hardship.
• Minny comes to work at the Foote's just as Johnny drives up. She panics, since she's supposed to be a secret from him, but he tells her not to worry and brings her inside where Celia has cooked dinner for her. Then they assure her that she's done great and that she'll have a job there for as long as she wants it.
  • Hell, not only that. In the film they are actually inviting her to share the same table at dinner, radical even for Skeeter's standards. What a couple.
  • Not only is Minny sharing the table with them, Celia is serving Minny!
    • And Johnny even pulls out her chair for her and gestures with a smile for her to sit down.
    • Even better, the narration lets us know that the dinner and the friendship that Minny received convinced her to take her family and leave her abusive husband.
• When Stuart and Skeeter are having relationship problems, her mother, who is usually unaffectionate tell her "if [he] doesn't know how intelligent and kind I raised you to be, he can march straight back to State Street. Frankly, I don't care much for [him]. He doesn't know how lucky he was to have you."