Thanks for the memories!

People are voting emotionally.

How sad is this?

Fantastic!

At age 4, Lily Owens accidentally kills her mother (Hilarie Burton) as she struggled with her father (Paul Bettany). It's 1964 South Carolina. Lily (Dakota Fanning) is about to turn 14. Her father is a cold abusive man. They run a peach farm and Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) is her caregiver and only friend. Civil Rights Act has just been passed. Rosaleen gets beaten for trying to register to vote. Lily breaks her out of the hospital before they finish the job. They are headed to Tiburon because that is what's written on the back of her mother's picture. Lily finds jars of honey for sale which leads to August Boatwright (Queen Latifah) who lives with her sisters May (Sophie Okonedo) and June (Alicia Keys). Lily befriends a teen black boy Zach Taylor (Tristan Wilds) who comes to work with the bees.The material wants to be better. It deserves to be more epic. It could be more compelling considering the subject matter. Before getting to August and her sisters, this movie is intense. Hudson getting beaten after spilling the tobacco juice is a real big scene. Paul Bettany is a good villain. The problem is that the story at the house takes a break. The house exists in a bubble and the tension somehow floats away. The story meanders and it never truly recovers its early intensity. Also, there may be one too many side stories. As with some novel-turn-movies, it may not be something that could translate quite as well as what's on the page.

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 ****

This is the movie you end up getting when you say to wifey "pick something you like tonight, I'll probably just potter around anyway". I ended up getting bored and sat down to watch it."The Secret Life Of Bees" is not really about bees at all, more about a young girl called Lily (Dakota Fanning, which i didn't realise until about half way in) who has lived through adversity. As a young child she accidentally shot her own mother, who was in the midst of domestic dispute with her father. Her father raises her, but not very well and causes her heaps of psychological issues. As a teen she one day leaves home with her nanny (played by Jennifer Hudson) and looks to start a new life. She stumbles across a bee farmer called August and her family and is allowed to stay and work with them. They all soon form a lovely bond until more tragedy occurs and many are forced to face up to their fears.Pretty girly, but an OK story with a decent cast. Covers family issues, racism and facing up to your fears.

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.