Tell It to the Bees

Another tragic lesbian love story. For all those who love lesbian movies as much as I do, we're very familiar with the majority of the heartbreaking plots that tend to leave us with an ache in our hearts by the end.

The beginning was hard to follow. It was clunky with the slow story and for awhile I was struggling with liking the way Anna Paquin played the character of Jean. But as the movie went on the characters and story began to grow on me. Holliday Grainger was fantastic. Her energy really brought life and emotion to the love story. Her character really shone.

From the very first opening scenes of the film, as narrated by older Charlie, he foretells how the movie will end. It was disappointing that he gave it away in the first five seconds of the movie. But in a way it also prepares you for what's to come. The movie has a lot of deeper messages in it. It's not just about a love story, but about a boy learning to grow up and learning some of the harsh realities of the adult world. It shows us how brutal the 50's could be for women or anything out side of the normal. It shows how society can effect our decisions and make life difficult. Some people loved the ending in the reviews. But personally I did not. It felt like there were some holes in the logic of the ending.

The footage of the bees and facts told in the film was impressive. And very educational.

The director draws excellent performances from the two female leads (playing Lydia and Dr Jean) and also from the very capable supporting cast. The cinematography and production design capture the ambience and restrictive social mores of the "small" 1950s Scottish mill town quite convincingly. The story is less convincing about the symbolism of the bees (which is presumably derived from the book). We see too many random extreme close-ups of bees, Lydia's son Charlie sharing his secrets with the bees in their hives, and in the last 20 minutes of the movie, an incident which implies that the bees have developed some sort of preternatural relationship with the boy. This latter aspect, particularly, seems rather incongruous with the otherwise quite adult themed lesbian romance story. It strikes me as a movie primarily to be enjoyed for its great character acting.

Don't get me wrong, I did like this film. The fashion style and the two main actresses don't disappoint. However, I'm not sure why they chose to diverge so much from such a well done book and the happy ending of it? The departure from the flow of the book made the last half hour feel clunky.

This is not so much a love story about a "forbidden" love, but it is also about a child who slowly discovers how things work in the adult world.

This film has a slow start (after about 30 minutes the pace picks up), but my patience is well rewarded at the end. An ending that raises some questions. Yet I didn't feel it had a very strange ending. Only after talking to someone about it for half an hour did I find out why the ending felt good to me. So does the aforementioned quote get a completely different meaning in the end. I think the filmmakers intended to make a film that makes you think.

The acting is very good. Especially Gregor Selkirk, who plays the son, is excellent. I have seen few young actors acting so convincingly and realistically. I had to get used to Anna Paquin, who plays Dr. Jean Markham, because she reminded me a bit of BBC Kate Bliss (Bargain Hunt, Flog it !, Put your money where your mouth is). If you would say that Kate Bliss and Anna Paquin were sisters, I would believe it. I had to suppress a chuckle when Jean said she didn't have any teaspoons. Kate Bliss being the silver expert. I think I have seen Steven Robertson before in the detective series "Shetland" and I had wondered if his accent was realistic. In this film the Scottish accent feels to me more realistic than the one he had in "Shetland". (But I'm not Scottish so it's just a feeling of someone who's second language is English).

Apart from a scene with too many bees (which looks almost surreal), I think this is an excellent film.

I can feel the warmth in the chemistry between Anna Paquin and Holliday Grainger. Two lonely and sad characters finding happiness in each other. The movie was better than expected. And the message and narrative are still relevant today. Because lesbian relationships are still frowned upon in some societies.