Quite a bit of honey is applied to make the awful truths palatable, but The Secret Life of Bees curtails the sappiness with performances -- especially Fanning's -- that are grounded in reality.
Comment
10/17/08
The Secret Life of Bees (2008)
58
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:134
Fresh:78
Rotten:56
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: The Secret Life of Bees has moments of charm, but is largely too maudlin and sticky-sweet.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Mar 5, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $37,665,012
Synopsis: 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 (Fanning) a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory... [More]
Starring: Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Reviews for The Secret Life of Bees
There's plenty wrong with The Secret Life of Bees, but the durnblasted thing got to me anyway.
10/17/08
Okonedo is at times heartbreakingly good as May, who carries a deep well of pain inside her; Keys is nicely fiery as June, who takes time to warm up to the visitors.
10/17/08
Prince-Bythewood makes you care about the characters and hope they live happily ever after.
10/17/08
What makes 'The Secret Life of Bees' an entertaining and poignant film is the chemistry between the cast that translates on screen.
10/17/08
There are lots of honey-as-romantic metaphor scenes, creating the feeling of an after-school special. But the theme that ultimately shines through is Lily's desire to find unconditional love.
10/17/08
This tale of compassion and love crossing the racial divide of the civil rights-era South remains powerful even when not fully plausible.
10/17/08
The Secret Life of Bees is like something Mark Twain might have come up with if he wanted to get on Oprah.
10/17/08
Ultimately, if you think about it too hard, 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.
10/17/08
It's unabashedly soft and sentimental, in its soft-pedaled tragedies as well as its uplift.
10/17/08
Price-Bythewood has encouraged fairly broad performances from these formidable actresses for characters who aren't terribly well developed in her script.
10/17/08
As for Fanning, she continues to prove herself a natural who can handle anything thrown her way. It's worth wondering, though, if she should have to.
10/17/08
A wonderful film about family, independence and the transcendent power of love, The Secret Life of Bees brims with honest emotion without spilling over into cheap sentimentality.
10/17/08
Although the lessons seem slight and sometimes even elementary, this does not make them any less heartfelt or sincere.
10/17/08
This is woefully familiar material, and Prince-Bythewood overdirects the film, draining it of the messiness of real life in favor of a syrupy sweetness that threatens to drown you.
10/17/08
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.
10/17/08
Top CriticIt comes across more as a connect-the-dots Southern literary concept than as a tale of real, damaged people bonding on a persuasively deep level.
10/17/08
You could laugh it off except these actresses sell like there’s no tomorrow.
10/17/08
It's pleasant to look at. It's nice to see Latifah in a role that's closer to being worthy of her talent, and ditto Fanning, who moves gracefully from kiddie roles into dramatic lead. Both women put in very strong performances.
10/17/08
The Secret Life of Bees is a deeply felt, well-intentioned film about race and reverence in the summer of '64. Like the ambrosia at the center of the plot, it moves slowly and tastes sweet.
10/17/08
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