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I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

As Good As It Gets

Absolutely Fantastic

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I just watched it again last night and The Secret life of Bees always makes me remember why it is one of my favorite movies. There are just so many high points to this film...no film is perfect but I think a 9 is well justified and since I'm a bit biased I give it a 10 :)All of the main actresses are just SUPERB in their roles. It always amazes me how Alicia Keys embodied the role of this beautiful talented but cold hard little women so bent on blocking out her emotions. Her learning to play the cello in 4 weeks for this role I think shows her dedication to the character and it comes through on screen. Queen Latifah is just absolutely perfect as the older sister/main mother figure. Jennifer Hudson embraces her role of down trodden maid turned strong, cultured loving sister and Sophie Okonedo...jeez the seamlessness of an actress being her character cannot escape you with her she is so extremely talented, wise and truly pure and endearing as May Boatwright I never fail to cry. Dakota Fanning is great as usual and also never fails to make me cry when she finally admits what she's done as a child and declares herself "unlovable." The women leads carry this film but also great in their supporting roles are the few males in the cast including Paul Bettany as the domineering abusive love-lost father Tristan Mack WIlds as Lillys' love and Nate Parker as the intelligent and endearing love to June.The movie fairly thoroughly explores several themes without I think pushing any one too much down your throat...from abandonment, guilt, abuse (both physical and emotional), racism, bigotry, nature, the way of nature and man and how they conflict, themes of hatred and of course love. Love that is where the true heart of the movie lies in love, how we all want it like Lilly, how love is blind with Lilly and Zach, how we're scared to take it like June and Neil, how some of the pure and innocent like May can have unconditional love and how we should all strive for that love and happiness everyday in everything around us. The very essence of what makes the honey so good is the love used in extracting it, the love sent out by the bees into the universe, the time and care took to package each and ever jar (this is what makes it even more intense when Lilly breaks several of them as she knows more than anyone the time and effort it makes it make even one jar)..So much love in this movie.The score is also gorgeous as they tend to the bees and India Aries' "Beautiful" crooning to the backdrop of beautiful hot southern summer nights and days filled with laughter and joy in the midst of a world of hatred are heavenly. The filming locations are beautiful, the direction is great. Always one of my favorites. 10/10

This film is wonderful, exhilarating, joyful. The cast are all spectacularly talented, and this film is another of those 'secret classics' which don't get the Oscars but actually deserve them. Gina Prince-Bythewood, the woman director, has made an intensely sensitive film about women, and it ain't no chick flic, it is serious stuff. I was knocked out by the sheer talent of the actresses. An eye opener to me was the incredible Queen Latifah. Apparently she is some kind of 'hip hop queen', but I wouldn't know about that, preferring Bach myself. She also 'raps', and I am one of those people who does not like or understand what they call 'rapping' at all, so I am glad she spared us that in the film. I notice from her bio that she was a basketball star in high school. Now that I can well believe, as she has the same 'body confidence' that another basketball player, Barack Obama, has. The director made a feature film about basketball earlier, so maybe that is how she and Miss Hip Hop the Rapper came together. But this woman Queen Latifah is a major example of Something Else. She has super-star quality. Really, I wanted to just rush up and hug her, that is how wonderful I think she was. However, the finest job of acting in this film full of genius is to my mind undoubtedly that of Sophie Okonedo, who plays the character May Boatwright, whose older sister and protector is Queen Latifah. She portrays a girl so tormented by 'not being quite right in the head', and so over-sensitive that she bursts into tears at the slightest thing, that it is hard to believe she is acting. It is a poignant performance, expressing to perfection the desperation of such a person who knows there is something wrong with her but can do nothing about it. The third sister is played by Alicia Keys, in real life a talented musician as well, and she portrays an over-intense hard-as-nails young woman terrified of marital commitment. Into this family comes the now teenaged Dakota Fanning, 'running away from home' as it were. She is making some progress with her speaking. Instead of 80 percent of her words being mumbled it is now down to about 20 percent. If she could ever master speech so that everything she said was comprehensible and audible, she could become a major actress, as her acting abilities are coming along nicely, and she effortlessly dominates scenes as long as Queen Latifah is not around (who has a greater command of the camera). I must say however that Dakota Fanning looked very tired to me, and maybe she ought to take a few months off, as she could burn out if she doesn't watch it, having worked non-stop practically since she was in the womb (I'm amazed she didn't star in something as a foetus). As for the story, it is very moving and emotional, a study in human conflicts, traumas, and feelings. This is the kind of film that women make, whereas men prefer making films where everybody gets killed. There's a gender lesson there somewhere! In this film, not even hope gets killed. So that means there is still hope. Jennifer Hudson gives wonderful support as the character Rosaleen, who accompanies Dakota Fanning as she flees from her father to take refuge with these women who had once known her dead mother. This is a happy-sad story that tears and warms the heart at the same time. Any woman would love it, and even some men might like it in between all the crime movies and battle scenes which they normally watch, where the quality is so often judged quantitatively, i.e. by the body count or by the sizes of the explosions. Here the only quantities involved are the degrees of emotion, which are in the upper nineties at least.

A delightful film for a Sunday afternoon, The Secret Life of Bees is a softly poignant, but tellingly polemical, story of black and white in South Carolina in the sixties, but with a welcome emphasis on black characters rather than white. With the excellent acting skills of all involved, especially Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, and Sophie Okenedo, the tale of racism, parental abuse and neglect contrasted with kindness and compassion, with a background of beautifully shot landscape and bee-keeping, offers a commendable film of quality, and one which I recommend. A nice change to place compassion instead of violence in the forefront, and for that compassion to be strongly centred in a cultural and educated black family.

Dakota Fanning and Queen Latifah give interesting performances in this film.Surprisingly, Jennifer Hudson shows promise as a caregiver beaten up when she tries to register to vote in 1964 down south. This is not played up and pretty soon Hudson's role is entirely relegated to very little here. This is a major disappointment.When a 4 year old girl tragically kills her abused mother in a terrible accident, the girl at such a tender age can never truly understand what had happened that led to such an awful thing. Raised by an abusive, drunken father who was the same to her mother, the child finally runs away with her caregiver (Hudson) and the two flee to the home of Queen Latifah in South Carolina. After a while, it turns out that Latifah had cared for the girl's mother and that the latter had fled to Latifah's home when she ran away. The mother had returned after several months to get her daughter when the tragedy occurred. Wasn't the father held responsible for having a gun in the house?Latifah's home is painted in Pepto Bismol color. Can you imagine referring to house by that description? Too much begins to go on. A sister, April is already dead and May, emotionally unbalanced, soon joins April. June is frustrated and turns down the proposal of a lovely man. Latifah nicknames Hudson July. What are we playing a name by months game? Come on.The ending is riveting but by this time we're a little tired of all this. Bees on the farm love honey. This film is far from honey.