The Secret Life of Bees (film)


The Secret Life of Bees is a 2008 American drama film, adapted from the novel of the same name by Sue Monk Kidd. The film was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and produced by Lauren Shuler Donner and Will Smith, with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, as executive producer. The film is noted for Queen Latifah's critically acclaimed performance as August Boatwright. The film was released in North America on October 17, 2008, and in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2008.

Plot

Lily Owens lives on a peach orchard, in South Carolina in 1964. Her father T. Ray is widowed, abusive, and often angry with her. On her 14th birthday, the harvest is starting, societal and personal unrest consumes her life, and a string of events, a mix of mystical, terrifying, and unjust, pushes her to run away to find a better life.
With Lily goes Rosaleen, their housekeeper. Lily is white and naively confident; Rosaleen is African American, in her 20s, politically aware, and proud. Rosaleen was beaten up by 3 racists and ends up in the hospital in police custody. Lily later, after having an argument with her father, helps Rosaleen escape from the hospital. Lily has but a few hoarded mementos of her mother, dead almost 10 years. One is a label: "Black Madonna Honey", Tiburon, S.C., and so Tiburon becomes their destination.
In two days they reach Tiburon and find their way to the home of August Boatwright and her sisters May and June. August has used her skills as a beekeeper to build a successful business. She has also built a strong community of black women who gather regularly in prayer, overseen by a life-sized statue of a black woman with an outstretched arm.
Despite the unlikeliness of Lily's lies about their circumstances, August takes them in, in trade for labor. Lily becomes an apprentice beekeeper. She discovers May's “wailing wall”, tucked full of little notes about events that have distressed the brittle and sensitive May, and she learns about the "Black Mary" in the living room.
In time Lily confides her truths in Zach, the teenage son of one member of the prayer group and August's assistant beekeeper. They try to watch a movie together, but their disregard for racial barriers, sitting with Zach in the "colored" section, gets Zach kidnapped and roughed up, and Lily yelled at. June and August hide the news from May to try to protect May, but Zach's mother unknowingly reveals the news, and the event breaks May. May drowns herself to escape the pain of feeling the world's hatred, even though she leaves a note saying that she knows Zach will be returned alive, which happens the next day.
With May's funeral comes some reconciliations and truths. June, strong and proud, agrees to wed her long-time boyfriend. Rosaleen is asked to be part of the household family. Lily, who already believes she probably killed her mother, as we see in flashbacks, now blames herself for Zach's kidnapping and May's death. She smashes several jars of honey and packs her things to run away, feeling unloved and unlovable.
Before she runs, August challenges Lily's outlook, and tells her about Lily's mother, whom August cared for as a child in Virginia and later sheltered her from T. Ray in the house in Tiburon. Meanwhile, T. Ray has figured out where Lily is was from pin holes in the wall where a map had been in her room, and comes to take her home with him. Lily does not want to leave, especially with him, and the three women form a phalanx of support. T. Ray admits that her mother did come back for her, and he had lied because her mother had not come back for him. With angry reluctance, he leaves her to be raised on the Boatwright farm.
The film closes with an older Lily narrating as she tucks a journal of the story into May's wall.

Cast

Early in development, David Gordon Green was going to the direct the film and Focus Features was going to distribute it.
Production began on January 7, 2008, in Lumberton, North Carolina, and Watha, North Carolina. and ended a few months later. The film was screened in September 2008 at the 33rd Annual Toronto International Film Festival, and had an October 17, 2008, theatrical release.

Soundtrack

Original music for The Secret Life of Bees was produced by Mark Isham.
The film features the following songs:
  1. "Baby, I Need Your Loving" by Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr.
  2. "Come See About Me" by Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr.
  3. "Prelude " by Johann Sebastian Bach
  4. "Six Canonic Sonatas Op. 5" by Georg Philipp Telemann
  5. "Sonata No. 3 In a Minor For Cello & Continuo: Allegro" by Antonio Vivaldi
  6. "The Honey Song" by Sue Monk Kidd
  7. "Beautiful" by India.Arie
  8. "Breakaway" by Irma Thomas
  9. "Come See About Me" by The Supremes
  10. "Doncha Know " by Alicia Keys
  11. "Heaven's My Home" by Sam & Ruby
  12. "Hippy Hippy Shake" by The Swinging Blue Jeans
  13. "I'm Alright" by Little Anthony and the Imperials
  14. "It's All Right" by The Impressions
  15. "Keep Marching" by Raphael Saadiq
  16. "Mary" by Joe Purdy
  17. "Song for Mia" by Lizz Wright
The soundtrack for was not released as an album.

Reception

Critical response

reported the film has an approval of 59% based on 138 reviews, with an average rating of 5.94/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "The Secret Life of Bees has charm, but is largely too maudlin and sticky-sweet." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Writing in The New York Times, reviewer A. O. Scott thought the film to be "a familiar and tired fable". Roger Ebert found the film "enchanting" and gave it 3.5/4 stars.

Box office

The film was No. 3 at the North American box office for its opening weekend with $10.5 million. It went on to gross $40 million worldwide.

Accolades

The movie won the awards for "Favorite Movie Drama" and "Favorite Independent Movie" at the 35th People's Choice Awards.
The film received seven NAACP Image Award nominations, which include Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. The movie won the Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture.