The Secret Life of Bees on Blu-ray Secret Life of Bees, @Featured
By
Some have described this warm, ingratiating movie as a "chick flick," probably because the main characters are all female and because it doesn't have any action, although it opens with a shooting. But it's a serious, sincere movie; most viewers will probably find something to like. It's a little too low-key, a little too internal, to be as involving as it might have been, and the main characters have few sharp edges, making their problems less than compelling. Briefly, the character played by Alicia Keys displays a contrarian temper, and at first seems as though she might provide some (needed) conflict, but she smooths out.
Some critics described the film as sentimental and mawkish, but it's intelligent enough, and so well acted, that it rises above those. It's not especially realistic; though it's set in the south in 1964, the time and locale are mostly side issues, though the character do have some unpleasant encounters with local racists, furious over the passing of the Civil Rights Act. But the movie is primarily about familial love, reconciliation and belonging.
In a nightmarish opening, we see Deborah Owens (Hilarie Burton) struggling with her brutal husband T. Ray (Paul Bettany); she's trying to pack to leave, he's trying to prevent her, while their terrified five-year-old daughter Lily watches from a closet. There's a gun; the child grabs it--and it goes off. Later, when Lily is fourteen, she can't learn anything about her mother from her always-angry father. She goes into town with her only friend, their black housekeeper Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), not much older than Lily; Rosaleen intends to register to vote--it's the first day this is possible in North Carolina--but she has an encounter with racists that puts her, rather than them, in jail.
At home, Lily finds a town name, Tiburon, and a map, and she sets out with Rosaleen, whom she deftly springs from jail. When they reach Tiburon, she's curious over a bottle of honey with a label featuring a black Virgin Mary. That comes, she's told, from a big pink house just outside town. Following an impulse she doesn't question, Lily heads there at once, accompanied by Rosaleen.
They meet regal August Boatwright (Queen Latifah), whose house it is; she lives there with her sisters, angry and bitter June (Alicia Keys) and slightly unbalanced by loving May (Sophie Okonedo). (In stories like this, mentally unhinged people are usually depicted as the next thing to saints.) They keep several hives of been out back behind their splendid old house; August allows Lily and Rosaleen to move into the shed where the honey is bottled. Lily is curious about May's "Wailing Wall," a low crooked wall of flagstones with many small notes tucked in among them.
Lily and Rosaleen soon settle into the life of the pink house. In the living room is an old ship's figurehead in the form of a strong-looking black woman with her hand upraised. This figure is the reason for the black Madonna on the honey labels, and plays a prominent role in the movie's story.
The movie is episodic, a loosely structured series of events. Rosaleen gradually becomes less important to the plot while August assumes the important place in Lily's life of matriarch and mother. Lily becomes friendly with a local teenage boy, Zach Taylor (Tristan Wilds); that she's white and he's black results in an ugly incident and some suspense. There turns out to be a link between August and Lily's mother; in a lesser film this would seem to be an unlikely coincidence, but it's acceptable, even welcome, here.
For reasons never quite clear, June is resentful about Lily (and Rosaleen) becoming a part of the Boatwright sisters' lives, but this and her own relationship with a young man are dealt with in a somewhat convenient manner. The movie, however, remains likeable.
And beautiful. It was shot in North Carolina, much of it on the grounds of the old house that was painted pink for the movie. The production design is very strong; the interiors of the house are warm and colorful--each room has its own color; for example, August's room (and her clothes) are blue; the living room with the figurehead is in dark red. Warren Alan Young was the production designer; his work is thoughtful and thorough, making the film look more expensive than it probably was.
The bees, of course, are partly a metaphor--the title essentially claims as much. August does teach Lily a great deal about how to care for bees, and how best to harvest the honey. Most of the bees are undetectably rendered in skilled computer graphics; this is convincing even in the high definition of this Blu-ray disc.
Queen Latifah continues to impress; she's always outstanding in authoritative or matriarchal roles, like this one, and always convincing. She's completely believable as August, and makes the somewhat improbable character entirely real. She also works very well with Dakota Fanning, who's making the transition from girl to woman. At the end, with only a small change of makeup and clothing, Fanning is convincingly several years older.
The extras on the disc are fairly standard for this kind of thing, much like the commentary tracks. Sue Monk Kidd, the author of the novel the movie is based on, conducts a tour of the sets; the presence of the original writer in this kind of material is a little unusual, but there's nothing very innovative or surprising about what she has to say.
"The Secret Life of Bees" has the feeling of a movie that will become someone's favorite, one that will seep into and shape their lives. It has its weaknesses, but it's overall entertaining and interesting.
