Reviews

The Secret Life of Bees

A throwback, coming-of-age film

By JENNY HALPER | October 16, 2008

3.0 Stars

Call it Southern comfort to Hounddog’s uneven Southern Gothic. And I mean that as a compliment: The Secret Life of Bees is a throwback to My Girl, when coming-of-age films didn’t shy away from sentimentality or rely on drugs and bared breasts. Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) turns 14 in 1964 South Carolina, where the Constitution gives way to Jim Crow and Lily’s maid, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), is locked up for spitting on a white man. Lily helps Rosaleen escape; she herself is fleeing her brutal father (Paul Bettany). Oh and Lily accidentally killed her mother when she was four years old. Writer/director Gina Prince-Blythewood avoids manipulation in adapting Sue Monk Kidd’s 2002 novel, and Queen Latifah, Alicia Keyes, and Sophie Okonedo are memorable as honeymakers who welcome the duo with Motown and pancakes. But the real heroine is Fanning, an actress capable of conveying guilt, nerves, and idealism all at once. No small feat. 101 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Chestnut Hill + Suburbs

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ARTICLES BY JENNY HALPER

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES | October 16, 2008
The real heroine is Dakota Fanning, an actress capable of conveying guilt, nerves, and idealism all at once.

PRIORITIES, REDISCOVERED | June 19, 2008
Instead of checking into rehab, the actress spoke her mind.

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FIERCE PEOPLE | September 19, 2007
Griffin Dunne’s 2005 film is like The Great Gatsby with Jay as an old coot whose grandchildren attack the help with spears.

TALKING TO HIMSELF | September 07, 2007
There’s a scene in Alan Alda’s new memoir that’s hard to forget: Hawkeye, age eleven, shooting terminally ill rabbits to a bloody, dusty death.