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Secret Life of Bees, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures


8.7

based on 31 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 10 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for thematic material and some violence

Starring Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo, Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds, and Paul Bettany

The Secret Life of Bees, based on the New York Times best selling novel and set in South Carolina in 1964, is the moving tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping. (Fox Searchlight)

GENRE(S):	Adventure \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Sue Monk Kidd (novel) Gina Prince-Bythewood
DIRECTED BY:	Gina Prince-Bythewood
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: October 17, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

ReelViews James Berardinelli

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Above all, it contains characters I care for, played by actors I admire.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Soars on the strength of strong acting and a script that stubbornly refuses to go all sappy and preachy.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

On screen something happens that goes beyond Monk's powers of description and Fanning's way of seeming 14 and 44 at the same time.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Suffused with a golden glow, the movie looks and sounds like a fairy tale.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It warms the heart in the hands of such sensitive storytellers.

TV Guide Perry Seibert

The final result is a bittersweet product closer to honey than treacle.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The filmmakers give Latifah and Fanning room to create characters that breathe in the sweet smell of clover and breathe out the contented sigh of independence.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's the strength of the actresses and their nurturing community that makes this Eden so satisfying.

Premiere Priya Jain

One of the pleasures of the film is that the themes don't hit you over the head.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

An affecting ensemble piece that's destined to generate a fair share of awards-season buzz.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Keys isn't given much to do except look as though she's posing for an album cover, but Okonedo's face is a marvel. Every thought, every emotion flickers across it like clouds obscuring the sun.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

It's pleasant and often touching, and the well-chosen cast sells what little drama they get, but there's no depth and little affect, and every would-be conflict peters out noncommittally.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Hampered by over-earnestness and tugs too intently at the heartstrings.

Time Richard Corliss

The Secret Life of Bees may not be a "To Kill a Mockingbird" on page or screen, but Fanning is the center of its soul and intelligence. It's Hollywood's job to find strong parts for this precocious genius as she matures into womanhood.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

May be overly sentimental at times, but at least it's about something.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

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 New York Times A.O. Scott

The film insists so strenuously on its themes of redemption, tolerance, love and healing that it winds up defeating itself, and robbing Ms. Kidd’s already maudlin tale of its melodramatic heat.

Variety John Anderson

Like a mouthful of honey, The Secret Life of Bees is cloyingly sweet and gooey, and you're not quite sure you can swallow it undiluted.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Only near the end does this likable but saccharine movie fleetingly complicate the "Gone With the Wind"–fed delusion that the love of poor, black nannies for their white charges was undiluted by bitterness.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The Secret Life of Bees is a lesson -- or, rather, a whole series of them -- we no longer need to learn. Of course, it's also a divine-sisterhood-defeats-all chick flick, and on that score there's no denying that its clichés are rousingly up to date.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Fortunately, the cast cuts through a cloying script and boosts unsure direction with sharply focused performances.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

Sweat and good intentions will take you only so far. And they take Bees right up to the threshold of entertaining--but not one step further.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Generally works like a drone but sometimes provides glimpses of the queens at the center

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

If you like your sentimentality sweet and sticky, then The Secret Life of Bees is definitely your jar of honey.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The Secret Life of Bees showcases Fanning, who is growing into an impressive teenage actress - even if a scene where she licks honey off an older boy's finger is, well, creeptastic.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Emotes mightily but says precious little.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Thanks to Gina Prince-Blythewood's treacly screenplay and plodding direction, the movie quickly congeals into a mess of sentimental cliches.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The honey runs thick in The Secret Life of Bees, and so does the treacle. The cloying dullness sets in early, although not from the first frame.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Bees is a movie in which a bunch of powerful African American women get their lives upended and in some cases destroyed so a little white girl can feel better about herself.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Should have billed itself as a fairy tale, as that’s the only possible way to swallow what Prince-Bythewood and Kidd are feeding us.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Shana K. gave it a9:
The story was well written and well acted. A character driven story where the characters have a lot of depth and the story definitely evokes emotion. Bring kleenex if you cry easily in movies as there were lots of sniffles in the theatre.

gladys gave it a9:
Loved it! This is a chic flick to be enjoyed on a girls outting. Strong female characters with a good story line. A definite must see.

Fata M. gave it a9:
Wonderful, moving, and sooo timely ... the juxtaposition of the civil rights movement vis-a-vis Obama (today's "Zach") having a powerful chance at the presidency. Extraordinary acting on Queen Latifa's part; so warm, charismatic, luminous! Faaning did an excellent job as well.

Chad S. gave it a5:
The Boatwright sisters live in a pink house; the "home of the free", according to John Cougar Mellencamp's "Pink Houses", a song that encapsulates the promises made in the bylaws of the Emancipation Proclamation, which suggests that the "little pink houses" are made for "you and me". The Boatwright sisters not only have property, they also own a thriving honey business. But this is 1964, a hundred some-odd years after Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, and still, the little pink houses for black folks were probably few and far between. Lest not we forget, a diner could display Black Madonna Honey in their window display, but serving black madonnas was another story altogether. But unlike the middle-class "Negroes" in John Singleton's "Rosewood", this utopian life the Boatwright women lead, never comes under attack attack by an unruly white mob. Rather, in "The Secret Life of Bees", it's a pre-teen girl, Lily Owens(Dakota Fanning), who brings disquietude to their lives, unwittingly, like a naive colonialist. When Lily roams around the Boatwright property, this precocious child, in a sense, discovers the woods, discovers the stream; she takes off her footwear and places her bare feet in the water. This act, akin to making yourself at home, is also analogous to colonization. Back home, Lily had a map with a thumbtack pinned to this very spot. Joseph Conrad wrote(from the novel "Heart of Darkness"), "Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours...and lose myself in all the glories of exploration." Although the film expunges blame towards Lily from her role in a family tragedy, it's worthy of note that at the funeral, the filmmaker distances the girl from the black-garbed, black-skinned mourners, by dressing her in a white dress. Prior to the gathering, Lily touches the heart of the black madonna, which saves her, but at the expense of her disparate housemate.

Albert C. gave it a10:
Outstanding!

Raprilc gave it a6:
'The Secret Life of Bees' is occasionally heartbreaking, but what sticks out for me is how miscast it was. (Rosaleen was supposed to be much older, for instance.) The actors all gave uneven performances. Dakota Fanning and Queen Latifah have been MUCH better in other films. Jennifer Hudson wasn't great at all, and I'm beginning to wonder if she's really just playing every part the exact same way. Alicia Keys was surprisingly good. And Sophie Okonedo was awesome. When the performances are like this, I blame bad directing. It should be noted that the director also adapted the screenplay from the novel; I think she bit off more than she could chew.

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Secret Life of Bees, The Fox Searchlight Pictures

Secret Life of Bees, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures