Tell It to the Bees

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.

I'm a Conservative, Straight guy, but this movie tugged hard at my heartstrings. The acting of the three principal players was exceptional throughout the entire film. The storyline was completely believable and powerful. I don't want to say too much about the plot, but I really emphasized with the players. The love shown was real and palpable. That is significant.

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.

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.

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.