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The Secret Life of Bees (2008)

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Time Out rating

Average user rating

6 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Some films are touching despite their overly direct, even crude, tugging at our emotions. And many people will no doubt be put off by TV director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s first major film as a writer-director – which only just stops short of leaping from the screen to embrace the audience in a big hug.

This adaptation of a blockbuster novel by American Sue Monk Kidd is a tribute from a white writer to black maternity and sorority wrapped up in a ‘Huckleberry Finn’-esque escape story set in a sleepy ’60s South Carolina about to be roughly awoken by the civil rights movement. It bears many faults, not least a surfeit of overt symbolism, soft clichés, cartoon-characterisation and beginner’s-manual mise-en-scène.

Furthermore, it’s weird to watch its warm, honey-hued light slowly wash out all traces of realism as the film follows its white object of compassion, traumatised, vulnerable and motherless 14-year-old Lily (Dakota Fanning, the little queen of precociousness) as she escapes the clutches of her abusive po’ farmer father (an unrecognisable Paul Bettany), alongside her black ‘maid’ (Jennifer Hudson). They flee to the safe house of a trio of beekeeping black sisters (feisty activist Alicia Keys, emotional barometer Sophie Okonedo and earth mother Queen Latifah).

But there’s a purity, clarity and honesty to this feminist heart-warmer’s melodramatic instincts that make it surprisingly moving and satisfying, while the evident generosity of its proffered hand over the racial divide is always welcome and relevant, however naively it may be stated.

Author: Wally Hammond 2008-12-02 10:38:03

Time Out London Issue 1998, Dec 4 - 10, 2008

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User reviews of this film

Marc said...

Posted on Jan 13 2009 14:25 Wow Usman! If you disappeared any further up your own arse you'd be inside out!! Stop trying to appear clever - this movie was never meant to be "mature look at womens involvement in the civil rights movement". Sometimes simple, heart-warming stories are good for the soul and this is one of them. To anyone who would rather be entertained than show off their superior cultural intellect, go and see this movie, you won't be disappointed.

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david said...

Posted on Dec 17 2008 00:07 Dakota Fanning's performance is exceptional, and this film deserves to be seen if only for that reason. I would however recommend the book to anyone - whether or not they liked the film.

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PERFECT DAY said...

Posted on Dec 12 2008 22:15 This is a heart-warming well acted film. The photography is great and easy on the eye. I doubt that it is meant to be an essay on the civil rights movement. Anyone who thought that it was meant to be overtly political is a jackass. If you have a big heart, then this film is a film you should consider seeing. Dakota Fanning is superb in this film.

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metachick said...

Posted on Dec 06 2008 22:29 Like gstar, I would also give this movie a thumbs up and four stars!! It's a relaxing, light airy feel good movie. The acting is pretty good and there are many moments where you have a lump in your throat for real. It's great!. It's not meant to be a civil rights movie. I really enjoyed it go and see it too!

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gstar said...

Posted on Dec 06 2008 16:30 I am actually going to see this one tonight. Unlike the reviewer above, the people I know that have seen this movie just loved it!!
I feel that they took in the humorous spirit it was meant to be seen in, and may be that's where the above reviewer went wrong.
Also, one shouldn't forget that not all good books translate into good films, so I would not let the film stop me from buying the book.
I will watch the film and follow up with my own personal review based on what I see on the screen, but based on the feedback from my brother, his girlfriend, and few mates of mine, I would give this movie a thumbs up and four stars!!

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Dec 06 2008 14:40 any expectations of a mature look at womens involvement in civil rights movement is stung by the swarm of bees as they make tons of honey while black sisters snivel and snort when not singing hymns to a statuette of a black madonna which sits in their sittin room,
all the initiations are hilariously overdone and shrouded in a patronising spiritual contempt which has become a trademark for queen latifah and not to beat her hollow we are blessed with a white girl who plays the queen bee for the glory of the greater mixed race ,
the only evidence of the sixties era are some pretty antique glass lamp shades which look just as out of place as the redundant men who are decorous in essence and play football when not eating breakfast .
i have no intention of reading the book now as i am still sufferring with brain fever from the exasperated frustration of having to watch the worst imitation of MISSISSIPI BURNING concocted with COLOUR PURPLE ,
THE poor little forlorn ,unloved white girl abused by daddy and longing for her dead mother helped and loved by cultured black sisters finds religious nirvana in south carolina courtesy of queen bees and queen latifah ,
if this is what you wanna see be my guest and waste your life like me who was silly enough to believe some good reviews .

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