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 Dakota Fanning gives an intense, award winning performance as 14-year-old Lily Owens, living in South Carolina in 1964, who has been dealt a harsh and brutal hand in life. Her crippling, inner conflict is an unforgettable and confusing memory of her mother in a struggle with her father when Lily is a young child. A pistol goes off and her mother is killed before her eyes.
Life with her father, T. Ray (Paul Bettany), is bleak. He’s hostile, uncommunicative, quick to deliver harsh punishments and shows no interest, warmth or love towards her. On the eve of her 14th birthday, she hesitantly suggests to him that maybe he could tell her about her mother for her birthday. His response: he sits in cold, mean silence and ultimately just gets up and leaves the room.
 Lily’s birthday is honored though by her black housekeeper, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) who has baked an angel food cake for her. Rosaleen also decides to take Lily into town for the day. Her real mission in going to town is to register to vote, thanks to just-implemented 1964 Civil Rights Act. Along the way, Rosaleen is harassed by three white men whom she bravely but impulsively insults back. The altercation triggers a brutal beating of her in front of Lily. The police haul them both off to jail and T. Ray comes to fetch Lily but leaves Rosaleen to suffer almost certain death at the hands of these brutal men. Back home, T. Ray delivers a last, most painful, abusive punch to Lily’s heart, informing her that her mother didn’t love her and was leaving them both when that pistol went off. Lily decides she has had enough of all this brutality and resolves to run away, stopping first to gather up the only gentle, loving person she knows, a wounded Rosaleen who is strapped to a bed at the local hospital.
 With hardly a plan in place, Lily decides Tiburon is the place for them to go. Tiburon, South Carolina, a small town about 70 miles away, is a name written on the back of a wooden slat with a picture of a black Madonna owned by Lily’s mother.
This one clue leads them to the hot pink painted home of the Boatwright sisters where they are taken in, cared for and ultimately loved. Lily and Rosaleen discover a world of educated, cultured, business-minded black women who are clearly more evolved and compassionate than any of the white people we meet in this movie. The real world may be full of hate and prejudice, but hardly any of that evil seems to enter the magical and lovely Boatwright world. |
 The three sisters, powerfully portrayed by Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo, are successful beekeepers who seem to work seamlessly alongside their white neighbors. Their philosophy of life mirrors the behavior of their bees. As August (Queen Latifah), the family’s queen bee, gently guides Lily’s education and development into a bee-like world of order and love, we see a transformation of Lily into a girl who ultimately achieves peace with herself and her past.
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 This is a gentle, beautiful film. Is it a true reflection of the harsh reality for African Americans in the South at the time? Though it touches on racism, it focuses more on the power and joy of love and the vital need we all have for a sense of family and belonging.
Based on a great story, the characters and performances are outstanding, and the pace is quiet and nearly perfect. The book was written by Sue Monk Kidd, a Caucasian born in Sylvester, Georgia who spent much of her 30s devouring spiritual tomes and the work of Western philosophers and psychologists. The Secret Life of Bees is her first novel, has sold over 5 million copies and achieved two years on the New York Times bestseller list. |
 I hope you will see this wonderful movie, already one of my favorite films of the year, and share your thoughts on it with us.
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The Secret Life of Bees A Fox Searchlight release. Produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, James Lassiter, Will Smith, Joe Pichirallo. Executive producer, Jada Pinkett Smith. Co-producers, Ed Cathell III, Ewan Leslie.
Directed, written by Gina Prince-Bythewood, based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Cast:
August Boatwright...Queen Latifah
Lily Owens...Dakota Fanning
Rosaleen Daise...Jennifer Hudson
June Boatwright...Alicia Keys
May Boatwright...Sophie Okonedo
Neil...Nate Parker
Zach Taylor...Tristan Wilds
Deborah Owens...Hilarie Burton
T. Ray Owens...Paul Bettany |