Bring Your Girlfriends, Sisters, Mothers and Daughters (The Secret Life Of Bees (DVD))

Member Name: DixieChick101

Product:	The Secret Life Of Bees (DVD)
Date:	13/01/09 (138 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Just a beautiful film, a great film to watch with anyone

Disadvantages: Not real a film male's are going to like really, too chick flicky

From when I saw this film advertised on television it interested me, with the likes of Queen Latifia, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys I thought somehow it must be an amazing movie with some great music in it, probably even from these three. However the film was nothing of the sort, here's my review.

---------------
The Plot
----------------

The film follows Lily a 14 year old girl and her nanny Rosaleen get away from Lily's cruel father. The film is based in the middle of the civil rights movement and Rosaleen finds herself in trouble with some locals so her and Lily take off to a town in South Carolina.

In South Carolina they find refuge with the Boatright sisters who believe the story that Lily sells to them, and the eldest Boatright sister gets Lily to help her with the bees and gets Rosaleen to help in the kitchen.

------------
The Cast
-------------

Dakota Fanning- Lily Owens
---------------------------------------

First things first, I am not a fan of this actress, she is the same age as my little sister and for me, is just way too arrogant in her films and never produces an amazing performance and just seems to not do any work, as it's all handed to her on a plate. So when watching this film I wasn't expecting her to make me laugh, cry, get angry and deliver what I would say is one of the best performances of 2008.

Fanning plays Lily Owens, she and her housekeeper run away from Lily's abusive father and take refuge with the Boatwrights. She helps out August Boatwright with the bees, but as she stays there she begins to learn more and more about her mother and what actually happened.

Oh my god, Fanning has grown up and has finally learnt how to act, in the first 10 minutes, she outshone over Jennifer Hudson, who can steal the scene if she really wants to, but it's Fanning who takes the whole film away from the stronger and older actresses and I think it's because of her the film is amazing.

The Sisters (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo)
------------------------------------------------- ----------------------

August, June and May are three sisters who live together in the same house, beekeeping and producing honey for the rest of South Carolina. August is the eldest and takes Lily under her wing, where as June doesn't like the idea of two new people in her house, so seems to be against the two. May has some problems, you never do really find out what, but she likes Lily and Rosaleen.

For me I think these sisters were perfect casting, Latifah as always plays the mother figure and she has this presence about her when she's on screen and really shines, I think the other two were just as good, specifically Okonedo who plays May, she really played the role amazingly well and you really believed everything.

Jennifer Hudson- Rosaleen Daise
-------------------------------------------

You get to see Hudson in a quiet role, she is struggling during the civil rights movement and when she stands up for herself she finds herself beaten badly. She and Lily go to South Carolina and find the Boatwright sisters and she is put into an environment where she doesn't have to be careful what she says.

I think Hudson in this role, despite it being a quiet role and for her meant to be behind the likes of May and Lily but she still steels the screen. A fantastic actress in a fantastic film.

Paul Bettany- T Ray Owens
------------------------------------

Bettany who I adore in films like A Beautiful Mind and Wimbledon, plays an evil character, he plays Lily's abusive dad. He's not in the film all the way through but his acting was just amazing throughout, he really made me feel quite scared in certain scenes, he plays any role given to him with 100%, plus he had to put on an American accent for this film to play the role, so with all that put together he really did very well.

-------------------
The Opinion
--------------------

I am terrified of bees, I actually said to a friend this may be a weeper of a film, but it'll probably be a horror film for me however they don't show much of the bees like you might think, it's all about being loved and sisterhood. Please do not be put off by the plot of the story, which may seem boring, but it's really a nice chick flick which is so moving in times and so beautiful and brilliantly put together. This is one of the best films I've seen in a long time and is very moving and just a beautiful film to watch and enjoy. The film is about love, compassion, friendship, sisterhood and a whole lot more.

----------------------------------------
Opinion of the Cast as a Whole
--------------------------------------------

I'm sure you can tell already, but I adored the cast. I think this is one of the best casting movies in a long time, each role is perfectly filled with an amazing actress/actor and it just all works so well together. The likes of Sophie Okenedo and Dakota Fanning however take the film away from the rest of them, they are so perfectly cast. Fanning does lead the pack and produces the role of her life as the young Lily. Jennifer Hudson could have got herself a better role, but she was perfect for the role of Rosaleen, as is the rest of the cast.

For me, the shock of the film was Bettany, I thought he was amazing as the abusive father; he was so scary and played the part amazingly well.

-----------------------------
Opinion on the Music
-----------------------------

For me I found the music beautiful throughout, there were no well known songs in the movie, it didn't start with an upbeat song, which for me usually means that it's going to be a crap film, the songs used are all acoustic guitar pieces which fit with the mood of the film. The music throughout the film was just beautiful, it really fit each different scene amazingly.

I do have some annoyances about the movie, don't expect like I did, to get a beautiful musical performances from the likes of Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys. You don't, you get a 10 second performance that wasn't even that great. For me I couldn't understand why they hired three music powerhouses and then didn't use their voices, I believe that Hudson sings at the end of the film, but I can't be sure as I didn't stay around that long.

-------------------------------
Opinion of the Director
-------------------------------

The director Gina Prince-Brythewood really does a great job with everything within the film. She manages to make you care about the characters involved within the film, even the evil charecters in the film (Paul Bettany) make you feel what it must be like to suffer what he suffered, even if he is an evil ass.

Prince-Brythewood who also wrote the screenplay managed to make the film believable and managed to make you fall in love with the charecters, she managed to make the movie a perfect chick flick movies, it's not really for guys to be honest, it's more of the sort of film you watch with your friends, or even a safe movie to watch with your mom or your daughter as there's nothing rude or anything like that in it.

----------------------------------------
Opinion of the Cinematography
-----------------------------------------

The film is beautifully shot, every scene has something bright and happy about it, even the depressing scenes, they put so much light into the film, and it still doesn't make you depressed because how amazingly well it's shot. It's very rare that you get a film like this, where it's filled with such morals and such different stories which you take from it, but Prince- Brythewod did an amazing job and really shot the film beautifully and made it into something amazing.

------------------
Final Opinion
------------------

This film is well worth the £5+ that you pay to get into the cinema, despite the fact that the overall rating of the film on IMDb.com is only 6.8/10, I haven't read an bad review on the film at all, it's just the fact that because it's based on a book which doesn't have much story in it, you can't really change it up and make it more interesting, it is what it is and for that it really is fantastic.

For me the actresses made the film, and they were all perfectly cast. It's a very mother/daughter kind of film, it's very moving and I did find myself nearly crying near the end of the film, I found myself being scared of Bettany's character and found my heart warming at the characters and how well they work together and almost remind us of sisterhood and how you have to stick together.

A gorgeous film, one to definitely checked out. It doesn't get the recognition it deserves, but still check it out.

-----------
Details
-----------

The film is still at the cinema, so I can't put anything about prices of DVD's and stuff yet.

Director: Gina Prince- Blythewood
Running Time: 110 minutes
Certification: 12A

Overall Rating: 9/10

Hope this helps. (C) Kirsty

Summary: Just a gorgeous film to watch. I really can't wait to get it on DVD.