OK---I will admit it---I was very prepared to not like The Secret Life of Bees. It seemed...well...maybe not a chick flick...but like a Lifetime movie that just is all sentiment with incessant violins in the background.
I am not too proud to admit I was wrong. And the main reason I was wrong was the cast. With Dakota Fanning starring as Lily, a 14-year-old girl who runs away from her father and their farm, and Queen Latifah as the woman who allows her to stay in her house, the cast is simply overpowering. Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keyes and the rest of the supporting cast is so good, that any questions you may have about the plot while watching the film simply melt into the background.
Set in the 1960s in the South, Lily finds a warm and comforting home with Ms. August (Latifah) a woman who seems to be part angel. No one in the area bothers the black women who live in this huge house and take care of the bees that make the best honey in the South. And while that seems unbelievable, the acting of Latifah and the others seems to render it a moot point, because the story is about family and love...most especially about the family you choose.
There are many ups and downs in Lily's journey to find out who her mother was, and who she is. But the strength of the characters, and the actors who play them, really shine through what might otherwise be little more than the Lifetime movie I worried about.
The Secret Life of Bees (2008) was excellent.
At least that is my opinion.
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