Sunday, October 19, 2008
A+E, Movies, Reviews

‘Bee’ Movie Is strictly for the girls

“The Secret Life of Bees” is not one of the best

Now that Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners [sitting] down together at the table of brotherhood” has come true, young people need to know it was not always thus. “The Secret Life of Bees” is not one of the best purveyors of that knowledge.

Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning, becoming a beautiful young woman) accidentally killed her mother when she was four. Now 14, she lives with her abusive father, T. Ray (Paul Bettany). When Lily’s best friend, housekeeper Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), is beaten and arrested for being uppity (i.e., standing up for herself), Lily breaks her out and they head for Tiburon, S.C., a town identified on Lily’s only photo of her mother.

The fugitives seek shelter with the beekeeping Boatwrights, who make “the best honey in South Carolina.” August (Queen Latifah) is an earth-mother type who gives off love in all directions. Simple-minded May (Sophie Okonedo), a surviving twin, internalizes all the world’s troubles. Practical June (Alicia Keyes) is a NAACP member working for change.

Lily becomes friendly with Zach Taylor (Tristan Wilds), a young black boy—friendly enough to precipitate trouble when they stray from the Boatwrights’ Eden-like preserve. Racial problems—and people who have overcome them—are really just the background for Lily’s personal journey, as she tries to learn about the woman who bore her, despite her daddy’s reticence and outright lies.

Most of the acting is good, the writing and direction not so great; but “The Secret Life of Bees” may be entertaining and instructive for teen and pre-teen girls, and older women could find it moving. 2.5 STARS—Steve Warren