Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Nicole I just watched it again last night and The Secret life of Bees always makes me remember why it is one of my favorite movies. There are just so many high points to this film...no film is perfect but I think a 9 is well justified and since I'm a bit biased I give it a 10 :)All of the main actresses are just SUPERB in their roles. It always amazes me how Alicia Keys embodied the role of this beautiful talented but cold hard little women so bent on blocking out her emotions. Her learning to play the cello in 4 weeks for this role I think shows her dedication to the character and it comes through on screen. Queen Latifah is just absolutely perfect as the older sister/main mother figure. Jennifer Hudson embraces her role of down trodden maid turned strong, cultured loving sister and Sophie Okonedo...jeez the seamlessness of an actress being her character cannot escape you with her she is so extremely talented, wise and truly pure and endearing as May Boatwright I never fail to cry. Dakota Fanning is great as usual and also never fails to make me cry when she finally admits what she's done as a child and declares herself "unlovable." The women leads carry this film but also great in their supporting roles are the few males in the cast including Paul Bettany as the domineering abusive love-lost father Tristan Mack WIlds as Lillys' love and Nate Parker as the intelligent and endearing love to June.The movie fairly thoroughly explores several themes without I think pushing any one too much down your throat...from abandonment, guilt, abuse (both physical and emotional), racism, bigotry, nature, the way of nature and man and how they conflict, themes of hatred and of course love. Love that is where the true heart of the movie lies in love, how we all want it like Lilly, how love is blind with Lilly and Zach, how we're scared to take it like June and Neil, how some of the pure and innocent like May can have unconditional love and how we should all strive for that love and happiness everyday in everything around us. The very essence of what makes the honey so good is the love used in extracting it, the love sent out by the bees into the universe, the time and care took to package each and ever jar (this is what makes it even more intense when Lilly breaks several of them as she knows more than anyone the time and effort it makes it make even one jar)..So much love in this movie.The score is also gorgeous as they tend to the bees and India Aries' "Beautiful" crooning to the backdrop of beautiful hot southern summer nights and days filled with laughter and joy in the midst of a world of hatred are heavenly. The filming locations are beautiful, the direction is great. Always one of my favorites. 10/10

csisman-595-441500 This movie just misses 10/10 for me. It's a beautiful story, the movie is stunningly shot and all the actors are brilliant, especially Sophie Okonedo. I'm docking a point because it centres Dakota Fanning's character, Lily, a young white girl, instead of centring the stories of women of colour, which is crucial for a film exploring issues of race during the civil rights movement. In all other respects, however, this film is fantastic. The inevitable violence that any civil rights story has is counterpointed by the safe, secret world which August, May, and June create. Beekeeping acts as a metaphor for female solidarity. I would definitely recommend this film.

moonspinner55 Dakota Fanning gives a sensitive, thoughtful, if somewhat familiar performance as a troubled white teenager in the racially-charged South, circa 1964, who has run away from her abusive father and now finds herself boarding with three black sisters in South Carolina who have inherited the family business, manufacturing and jarring the best honey in the county. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood also adapted her overcooked script from Sue Monk Kidd's bestseller, and the melodramatic entanglements that push the plot forward are often ridiculous and illogical. Prince-Bythewood, attempting to get every little nugget of sentimentality and 'importance' from Kidd's novel onto the screen, leaves some of her supporting characters wanting--what with a perplexing (and unlikely) suicide and the kidnapping of an innocent black boy by police which is summed up by an infuriating series of hugs. The ladies (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Sophie Okonedo) are an interesting, magnetic trio, but Jennifer Hudson (as Fanning's caretaker who escapes along with her) seems to get lost in the shuffle. Some marvelous moments are ultimately undercut by too much artificial sweetening. ** from ****

edwagreen Dakota Fanning and Queen Latifah give interesting performances in this film.Surprisingly, Jennifer Hudson shows promise as a caregiver beaten up when she tries to register to vote in 1964 down south. This is not played up and pretty soon Hudson's role is entirely relegated to very little here. This is a major disappointment.When a 4 year old girl tragically kills her abused mother in a terrible accident, the girl at such a tender age can never truly understand what had happened that led to such an awful thing. Raised by an abusive, drunken father who was the same to her mother, the child finally runs away with her caregiver (Hudson) and the two flee to the home of Queen Latifah in South Carolina. After a while, it turns out that Latifah had cared for the girl's mother and that the latter had fled to Latifah's home when she ran away. The mother had returned after several months to get her daughter when the tragedy occurred. Wasn't the father held responsible for having a gun in the house?Latifah's home is painted in Pepto Bismol color. Can you imagine referring to house by that description? Too much begins to go on. A sister, April is already dead and May, emotionally unbalanced, soon joins April. June is frustrated and turns down the proposal of a lovely man. Latifah nicknames Hudson July. What are we playing a name by months game? Come on.The ending is riveting but by this time we're a little tired of all this. Bees on the farm love honey. This film is far from honey.