Secret Life of Bees (2008)

Premiere
"One of the pleasures of the film is that the themes don't hit you over the head....There are some deeply emotional moments..." 10/24/2008

Los Angeles Times 5 of 10
I get why Dakota Fanning keeps getting offered these motherless waif roles in Southern-fried melodramas. Those saucer eyes, that lunar pallor, the Georgia accent, the guts to rat her hair into a dull mat and skulk around in shabby rooms that scream my-daddy-drinks. What I don't get is why she keeps taking them...Not that "The Secret Life of Bees," Gina Prince-Bythewood's high-minded and expensive-looking adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's bestselling novel, exists on the same plane as "Hounddog," the scrappy little howler otherwise hysterically (and speciously, it turns out, but that's show business) known as "the Dakota Fanning rape movie." On the contrary, what's being sold here is the movie equivalent of the honey-drenched sweet potato biscuits that are forever being passed around on-screen. Their nutritional value may be nil, but they sure look comforting..."The Secret Life of Bees" offers a consoling fantasy, or rather several consoling fantasies -- among them that a lonely adolescent fleeing her unhappy home might, if she's lucky, land without much effort squarely in the generous bosom of a family of beautiful strangers kinder, more loving and infinitely better art-directed than her own. Set in the South of the 1960s, the story unfolds against a backdrop of utter down-home gorgeousness, in a place where racism, when it occasionally rears its head, takes everyone a little off-guard...The charismatic Latifah is as warm and expansive as ever, but in her casual Friday khakis and modern businesswoman confidence she feels anachronous and out of place. She has carved out a niche as a sort of comforter of the afflicted, and although she wears her sainthood lightly it would be nice to see her do something different. - Carina Chocano
 
ReelViews 9 of 10
When it comes to movies that touch the heart, few have a more delicate yet undeniable impact than Gina Prince-Bythewood's The Secret Life of Bees. Adapted from the novel by Sue Monk Kidd, the production achieves something few literary interpretations succeed at: bringing out the inner voice of a character without resorting to an incessant voiceover. This is due in no small part to the mature, nuanced performance of Dakota Fanning, whose talent continues to develop as she ages. By resisting the temptation to over-emote, Fanning makes Lily an individual worthy of sympathy and admiration...For Fanning, this is a leap forward from Hounddog. Her character here is in many ways similar to the girl she played in the earlier movie, but the nature and quality of the performance is much different. Given the superior material of The Secret Life of Bees and the sure-handed direction of sophomore filmmaker Prince-Bythewood, Fanning shines in a role that requires her to teeter back and forth between adult and child, displaying decisiveness one moment and uncertainty the next...The other actress to stand out is, unsurprisingly, Queen Latifa, whose intense screen presence makes her a force to be reckoned with even when she's simply standing in the background, not saying anything...If there's a sense that the film's ending is a little abrupt, that's a credit to the filmmakers. Lily is such a vibrant character and her world is so expertly formed that we want the story to extend beyond what could reasonably be considered its natural end-point. It's hard to imagine that The Secret Life of Bees won't be part of many Oscar conversations. It has the intelligence, craftsmanship, and heart to win over both critics and regular movie-goers. - James Berardinelli