“The Secret Life of Bees” (2008) is an American film based on the 2002 book of the same name by Sue Monk Kidd. It stars Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo.
It is about Lily Owens, a 14-year-old white girl played by Fanning. She runs away from her heartless father to live with a family of three black sisters who keep bees. It takes place in small-town South Carolina in the summer of 1964. She is unable to discover the truth about herself till she finds out the truth about her dead mother. She discovers the true meaning of love, etc.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith produced it; Gina Prince-Bythewood directed it. She also did “Love & Basketball” (2000), another great film. “Bees” won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture.
I watched it because I wanted to see Alicia Keys. My sister saw it and warned me not to get my hopes up: “Alicia was so-so, nothing great.” She liked the film and watched it again with me, but she was not sure if I would get into it: “It’s a chick flick.” I still liked it. Touching and enjoyable.
Alicia Keys was pretty good. Beautiful as ever. And, even better, she had a boyfriend so I could imagine myself as him. But one drawback with Alicia Keys is that I never forgot that it was Alicia Keys. Unlike with Dakota Fanning and Queen Latifah.
Jennifer Hudson did not have a big part. She played the maid that Fanning’s father had. There is a great scene where she is going to register to vote, extremely upsetting, but after they run away and arrive at Queen Latifah’s house Hudson becomes part of the background.
Sophie Okonedo was good. I wished they would show more of her.
Fanning regarded Hudson as an overgrown child and Hudson herself acted as if Fanning was way older than she was. I am not sure if that is how it was back then between black servants and white children.
Given how she was with Hudson I thought Fanning would be high-handed with Queen Latifah and her sisters. She was not. And it was not just because she was dependent on their kindness: she seemed to respect their age and wisdom. Partly, I think, because they had money and education.
When Sue Monk Kidd, who is white, was asked why she wrote about black women, she said:
Because I grew up surrounded by black women. I feel they are like hidden royalty dwelling among us, and we need to rupture our old assumptions and develop the willingness to see them as they are.
Or maybe it is just a magical Negro story.
When Queen Latifah’s godson took Fanning into town alone in his pickup truck it did not seem believable: how could he be that brainless!
The story takes place in South Carolina but was shot in North Carolina. It is based on Kidd’s childhood in – Georgia. Not that I could ever tell the difference.
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have to check it out..i hope its not another mammify the black woman movie…where its just a bunch of mammies
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Abagond you have got to read the book, its 1000000x better than the film. I was disappointed when I saw the film.
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“Because I grew up surrounded by black women. I feel they are like hidden royalty dwelling among us, and we need to rupture our old assumptions and develop the willingness to see them as they are.”
..And then you put her down. Isn’t the above statement what you are always preaching? Funny, but when you described Keys, you went right to her looks, instead of what was inside.
I saw the movie and agree that the book was much better, but what book isn’t?
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I saw this movie back when it first hit DVD. It was okay. To be honest, I don’t really expect much from most of the Hollywood fare that I see.
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canalpublishing:
Fair point about Alicia Keys: she was more than just a pretty face in ths film. Even if she were plain-looking I would have still liked her character and found her interesting.
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canalpublishing:
No, Kidd’s statement is not what I am preaching. Her heart is in the right place but she is still exoticizing black women.
I think it is a fair question to ask whether it is a magical Negro story – a story where a white character is saved by black characters who appear out of the blue.
On the one hand the black characters are developed, they are not just plot devices. That argues against them being magical Negroes. On the other hand, it is made clear in the story that they are not ordinary black people. And they save Fanning in a way that is close to magic.
Magical Negro stories seem to paint a good picture of blacks and yet make it clear that the blacks are not ordinary. It is like that old left-handed compliment, “You are not like other blacks”.
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I’m going to play devil’s advocate:
On this blog, you’ve emphatetically went on about the western world’s lack of appreciation for black women. And how diluted and “white” many of the black women who’ve become crossover pop beauties are. (Implying that the likes of Halle Berry and Beyonce Knowles aren’t “really black” and so forth). Yet, you appear to be a big fan of Alicia Keys’ looks and music. How is she different from Berry and Knowles? Doesn’t she go against what we’ve constantly explored on this blog?
Again, I’m just playing the devil’s advocate! LOL.
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I never ever said that Beyonce and Halle were not real black women. Of course they are. I never said they are not beautiful. Of course they are.
The trouble is that they are played up by the mainstream (white people, mostly) over other black women who are more beautiful and more talented, most of them darker-skinned. That is what gets to me.
What makes Alicia Keys different, at least to me, is that she is not using her talent to kiss up to he mainstream. She makes her own kind of music, not whatever is in fashion at the moment. She seems like a serious soul, not a sell-out.
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When I read the book, it became my new favorite. I liked the movie but as others have said, typically books are better.
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I gotcha, Abagond. Again, I was just playing the devil’s advocate.
You have implied that Berry and Knowles are “less black” in the past. But then again, that’s how they look to you and many others. There’s nothing wrong with that assessment. I can agree to some degree.
Nothing about Keys’ brand of pop/R&B is original or soulful. At least, it’s not, to a true music connoisseur. Musically, she’s in the same boat as Knowles. Don’t let a public image fool you.
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well i disagree with that myname because alicia keys does make soulful music. i mean REAL music compared to what you hear right now and i think she’s way more talented than beyonce, even though beyonce is more popular than alicia. i see alicia just being herself and doesn’t have to try hard to please hollywood or anyone else. at least that’s what i believe. beyonce does have talent, i will say but she doesn’t stand out to me as alicia does.
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Again, if you don’t know about real soul, then someone like Keys is a serious, thoughtful musician. If you do, you can see that she is clearly not. She’s a pop artist. A Clive Davis creation. Not a creator or “true musician”.
Again, the only thing different about Keys and Knowles is public image. That’s it. And Keys has sold more records than Knowles, so I wouldn’t say that she’s less popular.
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i’m not saying she’s not popular because she is but she doesn’t stand out like beyonce. to me she is a musician and does have soul when it comes to her music so she’s more than just some pop star. i know about soul music because i listen to soul music all the time and to me alicia is considered that. no one puts her in that category of being a pop star. she doesn’t make the same music compared to what’s out. she’s a real artist.
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Not sure if there are “Magical Negroes” that appear out of nowhere.
The Queen Character was involved with Fanning mom – she raised her as well, so the fact that fanning came to her was a circle completion of the story.
Not sure as it was some time ago, but that’s how I remembered it.
As a side note, this is one of the best things QUEEN ever did. Check it out.
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lol well damn mynameismyname
Well I’m going to have to say that I have heard better soul artist than Alicia. However, to say she is a pop artist I’m going to have to disagree. Out of all the soulful artist, she has more of a mainstream appeal like John Legend. Her lyrics are deep but written in simplistic ways for all people to understand. Not too many people understand The psychadelic funktress Erykah Badu because her lyrics take you to another world that most people aren’t going to understand or feel. So that’s why she is not mainstream and also her look as well. Alicia has a mainstream look with a soulful appeal. She might not take her lyrics to another place like Erykah, Zap Mama, Jill Scott, and Angie Stone but she is a soulful artist to me.
Now as far as the film, “The Secrete Life of Bees” I didn’t like it lol. I’m sorry I thought the feel was very typical and unoriginal.
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Isnt Hollywood manipulative of our emotions and responses? We respond to their ideals of beauty and strength, even to our own hurt. It foolish to expect white male Hollywood to tell our stories. Lets not get upset when they dont! Lets go to the black classics books, like “Native Son by Richard Wright” an explosive story a poor black man fighting the constraints of racism in 1940s. Or “There eyes where watching God by Zora Neale Hurston” a powerful book of a black woman boldly defying social rules in the 1930s.
For a white women taught superiority to blacks, listening to black women being human (speaking) is exotic!
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“Native Son” was great.
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yeah i just saw the movie, i liked it, but the part where the black man and white woman (lily)went on the town did seem unbelievable
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Right, that did not seem believable to me either. He would have more sense than to drive alone with a white girl.
I also found it strange how incurious the white townspeople were about Lily – an underage white girl living with black women.
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I read the book but didn’t see the movie, but even when I was reading the book (which I liked) I had to read the part where Zach and Lily went into town over again. His friends didn’t say anything about her being there, either! That was one the most unrealistic segment of any historical fictions I’ve ever read.
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I haven’t seen the film (I might watch it one of these days), but I must say there was something about the book that I didn’t like, didn’t like at all. It made me pissed off. I don’t remember what, though. All I know it wasn’t about the story itself, but about storytelling- certain things, especially the ending, seemed rushed and unbelievable. And I hate when writers make a weak ending. Ending can make or break the story.
I don’t remember seeing too much of a magical Negro elements, but back in the days I didn’t know what “Magical Negro” means. I do remember the writer managed to make a poetic atmosphere for the story, and it was good, but she somewhat ruined it in the end.
It was one of those books I wanted to like, but I didn’t. My father (who was a veterinarian) had beekiping as hobby (and so did my grandfather). So I was really interested in that part of the story. But I was disappointed in the end. I remember my mother got angry when she found out I disliked the book (she loved it).
And I don’t even remember Lily went to town with a black guy. Were they romantically itnerested in each other?
On an unrelated note:
Alicia Keys was pretty good. Beautiful as ever. And, even better, she had a boyfriend so I could imagine myself as him.
Men do that?!?
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I read the book I liked it, and I liked the film. Alicia Keyes was good in her role, I love Sophie Okenado, she is such an underrated actress so talented, I thought the film was good.
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