The Secret Life of Bees

This is a film that's neither fish nor fowl. It has a great cast but with the exception of British Paul Bettany doing an American accent, and Dakota Fanning turning on the faucet for tears, it's not an actor's showcase. The racism depicted rears its ugly head yet the reality was far less saccharin.
The Secret Life of Bees is the type of movie made for an undemanding audience that looks great from the outside yet leaves you wanting more substance. Fanning runs away from an abusive father (Bettany) with another abused woman, Jennifer Hudson, who works on Bettany's South Carolina peach farm and found herself on the wrong end of the scapegoat stick. The time is 1964 and LBJ has just signed the Civil Rights Bill. The pair end up at the home Boatwright clan, a Caribbean Pink house where everyone's named after a month (May, August, April).
The characters are archetypes rather than flesh and blood personalities. August Boatwright (Queen Latifah) is the Earth Mother, the head of the matriarchal family while sisters June (Alicia Keys) and May (Sophie Okonedo) represent cold beauty and insanity. The sets and photography are immaculate while the direction seems scattershot. Scenes begin and end with no other reason than to propel the plot rather than lend realism to the situations or characters. The Secret Life of Bees certainly goes down like a spoonful of purple honey (honey made by bees that pollinate elderberry bushes), yet you're left wondering why the filmmakers didn't rise to the seriousness this fable demands.