None of this, as you might guess, is shot through a glass darkly.
Comment
10/17/08
The Secret Life of Bees (2008)
58
%
Tomatometer
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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.
Theatrical Release:05-12-2008
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
An affecting ensemble piece, gently paced and gracefully told.
10/17/08
There's a quiet charm to The Secret Life of Bees, a family movie that dares to tackle some serious subjects along the way. It's feel-good most of the time, feel-bad some of the time, and well made throughout.
10/17/08
With meaty themes and compelling characters, Bees is a rich, emotional exploration of the redeeming power of love and the transforming comfort of home.
10/17/08
Everybody deserves better than The Secret Life of Bees. That includes the filmmakers, the cast, the crew, the audience ... you name it.
10/17/08
The Secret Life of Bees maintains a smartly calibrated balance between the personal and the historic, between nature and culture.
10/17/08
The Secret Life of Bees insists so strenuously on its themes of redemption, tolerance, love and healing that it winds up defeating itself.
10/17/08
Top CriticJennifer Hudson adds some grit to a project that might have worked better as a Hallmark TV special.
10/17/08
Prince-Bythewood demonstrates a lovely gift for capturing the unsaid.
10/17/08
Love and family may not be able to overcome everything, but you couldn't prove that by The Secret Life of Bees, a refreshingly clear-headed film version of Sue Monk Kidd's best-selling novel.
10/17/08
The Secret Life of Bees generally works like a drone but sometimes provides glimpses of the queens at the center.
10/17/08
When they are laughing and cooking, you are thinking, 'Racism will pop up any second now,' or 'T-Ray is going to show up'; it's an uncomfortable feeling.
10/17/08
If you want to take your teen daughters to a movie and then talk -- really talk -- about it afterward, about race, the past, pain, sorrow, redemption and hope, The Secret Life of Bees has a lot more to offer than you might think.
10/17/08
...an accessible, handsomely mounted movie of one of those professionally Southern middlebrow novels riddled with platitudes and homey truisms that make the rounds of ladies' book clubs
10/17/08
For every heart that's warmed by this celluloid celebration of the maternal spirit, another will find it condescending regarding race and/or gender.
10/17/08
Lovingly made, the film is beautifully performed, especially by Queen Latifah and Alicia Keys.
10/17/08
The Secret Life of Bees is an unbelievable story that will definitely get you teary eyed and is proof again that Dakota Fanning is one of the best young actresses around.
10/17/08
A movie that knows exactly what it wants to be and mines that territory until you start to cry, whether you want to or not
10/17/08
Mostly, this is Hollywood excess the way I like to see it: skillfully done, and with a beating heart.
10/17/08
Did you know that beehives can be symbolic of other things, forming the basis of plainly spoken platitudes and folk wisdom? It's true!
10/16/08
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