Sometimes Not Feeling Is the Only Way You Can Survive
The Secret Life of Bees (L-R: Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Dakota Fanning)
Based on the best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lilly Owens (Dakota Fanning), age 14, living in the south with a father (Paul Bettany) who doesn’t feel anything even as he watches his daughter bleed her knees on the torture spot he makes the night before her birthday. Set at the time when the Civil Rights Act (1964) is just being implemented, the only ally Lilly had was her caregiver, a black woman named Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson). Together, they flee their town after Rosaleen was beaten by some white men; they were taken in by three sisters who live in a pink house – August (Queen Latifah) who grows bees for honey; June (Alicia Keys), a classical cellist and civil rights activist who for some reason cannot commit to the man she loves; and May (Sophie Okomo), the surviving half of a twin who, after her sister April’s death, became a perennially sad (literally wailing) person who writes notes on her “wailing wall” to release some of the feelings she later describes as “carrying the weight of the world.”
If you hate sappy movies, then this one is not for you. As with many tales that speaks about the search for love, family, and identity, the movie aims to touch the audience in a way that at some point makes you feel like someone’s tapping you on the shoulder and asking, “Are you feeling it now?” I would have said yes, if I was asked. But there’s a certain subtlety to it that keeps the film from going overboard with drama. I think perhaps the actors are to be thanked for that in a large part. Dakota Fanning carries the movie in her small deft hands. Since I saw her in the TV series Taken, I had always been a fan. She couldn’t make me cry now that she’s older and no longer playing her cuteness, but that is not to say she is a less effective actress. Dakota Fanning is a natural actress, if there ever is one. The other four women fill their parts very nicely; I couldn’t quite pick a favorite out of them.
In the end it’s about family – how they take care of each other and how, for some, you find your own family when your blood kin doesn’t treat you like one. It’s about hope and finding the strength within yourself to make room for forgiveness and moving on. It’s kinda sweet I can almost taste it.