Movie Review: The Secret Life of Bees

Set in rural South Carolina in 1964, Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees has many parallels to Harper Lee's 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird.  In both, we have an intelligent yet confused female protagonist struggling to grow up without a mother in a world full of racial hatred. 

Both Lily Owens of Bees and Scout of Mockingbird witness the belittling abuse and cruel acts of violence towards the blacks in their lives.  Because of their innocence and inability to see color as an issue, they are the perfect vehicles to tell these stories.

Where the two girls differ drastically is in their home lives.  You won't find a better, wiser, or more loving father than Scout's Atticus Finch.  Lily's father T-Ray (a frightening turn for Paul Bettany) is another story. 

Physically and mentally abusive, T-Ray embodies the anger and hatred of the time.  For punishment, he makes his daughter kneel on grits for hours and never lets her forget that her mother's death, though an accident, was her fault.     

Dakota Fanning, in a surprisingly mature and layered performance, plays Lily.  "I can't think of one thing I'd rather have than someone loving me," says Lily, haunted by the knowledge that she herself is the reason that she has no mother to love her.

Guided by a memento of her mother's--an image of a black Madonna and child--Lily sets out with her caregiver (impressively played by Jennifer Hudson) to find a place her mother once lived.   Not only is Lily trying to escape the violence of her home, she is hoping to find answers about a woman she barely knew. 

Lily discovers the same black Madonna image on a jar of honey in a local shop and traces it to the beekeeping Boatwright house where three sisters live:  the peaceful, motherly August (exceptionally played by Queen Latifah), angry and distrustful June (a fierce Alicia Keys), and simple, sentimental May (a soulful performance from Sophie Okonedo).    

Much like the bees' safe haven in their hive, Lily finds the same in the Boatwright household where beauty, love and tranquility exist amidst the hateful racism and gender inequality that prevails outside those doors.  And all three women, in their own unique way, help Lily to blossom and conquer her fear that she is "unlovable." 

The film didn't necessarily capture the beauty of the novel's beekeeping imagery, or its poignancy relative to the story as a whole.  But it did successfully convey the genuine bonds that develop between these characters despite race and age and that "family" runs much deeper than bloodlines.

Director Gina Prince-Bythewood, as in her previous film Love and Basketball, shows great empathy for her characters.  Though the three sisters and T-Ray could be seen as convenient clichés, she lets their multi-faceted stories unfold in a way that lets the audience know that, literally, there is very little that is purely black and white in this world.  We all have shades of gray within us. 

 
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Starring:  Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo, Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds, Hilarie Burton, Paul Bettany

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Screenwriter: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Producer: Lauren Shuler Donner, Will Smith, James Lassiter, Joe Pichirallo

Showing at the Lyric Friday December 5^th through Tuesday December 9^th
Check their website for showtimes:  http://www.thelyric.com/