A Vida Secreta das Abelhas

Dakota Fanning plays a teen named Lilly who has lost her mother. She goes in search of answers and ends up in the home of a woman (Queen Latifah) and her sisters, who own bee hives and bottle the honey for a living. Living with the women, she finds purpose in life. A subplot has her unpleasant stepdad looking for her. The story is set in the 1960s Deep South, so there's plenty of racial discord. The movie may remind some of THE COLOR PURPLE or FRIED GREEN TOMATOES. For those old enough to remember, it also bears overtones of A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING. Fanning is heartbreaking as the troubled child and Latifah plays the family matriarch like she was born to it. A good movie, but too long (well over two hours) for its slender plot.

I loved the novel.

I liked, very much, this adaptation of it. It represents not only a beautiful but a profound useful film, reminding essential truths and offering admirable performances, imspired images and one of good kicks to discover the beauty of life and the high significance of love , to be part of family and the reconciliation with bitterness of past.

This makes it an experience more than a real good film. And just this fact real matters.

I loved the music and the gentle definition of refuges.

And , sure, I write again, I was just seduced by the great performances , Queen Latifah being almost perfect as August.

So, the gift is the taste of honey , metaphorical, off course and a wood statue , present itself , reminding the things, essential things, defining us as clay of happiness.

These are cynical times, and the U.S. is still struggling with it's feelings on race, even today. The more of these types of movies, the better. Simple human love comes through in every frame. After a summer of superheroes and sex humor comedies, this was the most life affirming and refreshing film I've seen so far this year. If the academy doesn't recognize some folks from this film, they'd be remiss. I smell Oscar all over this film. Queen Latifah was wonderful as usual. Sophie Okonedo played an emotionally damaged woman with perfect pitch and demeanor. Paul Bettany's performance of the alternately hurt and hurtful father was a challenge. You needed to both hate him, and sympathize with him for the role to be effective, and I thought he pulled this off well. Just simply a moving story, a great script, top notch acting, and all beautifully shot. I place it in the must see category.

I don't go around throwing 10's around for movie ratings, but I extremely impressed by this movie. The emotional and visual scope offered by the story, the cinematography, and the acting, gave all viewers with eyes to see and ears to hear, a wonderful treat. I'm sure not everyone loves this particular type of movie, but if you haven't been desensitized by the CGI and special effects of many of today's movies, you'll appreciate the very core of this movie, which is the human struggle - especially the depiction of the search for identity, and the need to give and received compassion from those living on this big blue marble together with us. A reminder of the racism of a not too far distant time, and the timeless theme of love, death, friendship, and compassion, add the effective seasoning that helps us all relate in some very tangible way to this movie. Enjoy it with someone you care about, and taste the honey.

I surprisingly enjoyed the movie more than I thought and would give it a solid 7. It was well scripted, the filming was fantastic, and the acting was good - it was a very pleasant movie. I read the book, so I knew what the plot was about, so no surprises there (although I wish it included one detail that was in the book about the shooting). There was nothing truly spectacular or exciting to give it an 8 (but nothing truly spectacular happens in the book either, so the movie couldn't really change that), but nothing terrible/poor script/poor acting, which you usually find a bit of in a 6 or 6.5 stars. I saw it in the theater and it was the perfect "girls night out" movie. Also good for mother/daughter. Otherwise, wouldn't pay $10 to see it. It would be a great rental - see once and return.