Review of The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees is a fascinating story about coming of age as a young girl, Lily Owens, who runs away from home to find a better life. The movie starts off showing the everyday life of Lily Owens, played by Dakota Fanning. The viewers are shown her abusive father T-Ray, played by Paul Bettany, constantly giving her a hard time, making her life miserable. One morning, Lily accompanies Rosaleen, played by Jennifer Hudson, into town where Rosallen intends to vote. On the way, however, three men taunt Rosalleen who responds by spilling chewing tobacco juice on their shoes. The men call the police which causes Rosaleen to get thrown in jail. Lily, wanting to get away from her father and find more about her mother, breaks Rosaleen out of Jail and flees to Tiburon, a place that Lily has embedded in her mind for quite some time. After they arrive in Tiburon, Lily finds 3 women that know more about her past than she first realizes. They all have something new to teach lily. Since Lily never got to learn from a mother of her own, they act as motherly figures who protect and watch over her. The book really encapsulates the flooding of different emotions that Lily feels throughout her journey, however, the movie does not do as best as a job that it could have done. Overall, the movie felt very rushed and did not feel as fine-tuned as it could have been. A major thing that both hurt and helped the movie was the cast choices. The movie had very powerful people that fit their characters well but some others did not do as good of a job that exemplified their character in the best way. An excellent character that fit his role well was T-Ray. Paul Bettany did a terrific job of showing the viewer the character that is full of hate and sadness. The viewers can tell that T-ray is a person who bottles up his emotions and takes it out on others. T-ray was a beautifully played character that showed me he was a more complex person deep down rather than a hateful father towards lily on the surface. Because of such a good casting choice, one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when T-Ray is torn open and we are shown the side of him that loved Deborah so much. T-Ray is reminded of how much Lily looked like Deborah and starts believing that she is Deborah, yelling at Lily telling her not to leave him again. Bettany's role in this scene was very professionally done, he did a good job in selling to me the emotion he was going through and made the viewer feel the inner turmoil he felt. A casting choice that could have been improved on was the casting choice of Lily. Dakota Fanning was a great choice in overall acting for normal scenes. However, when a part in the movie needs Lily to be distraught or heartbroken, Lily does not show the viewer how sad the Lily in the book really was. For example, when Lily learns that her mother left her with T-Ray and fled without her, Lily was supposed to feel emotions of a mix of sadness and anger. Fanning did not show the viewer the number of emotions she was feeling at that moment in time. When Fanning cried, it did not feel genuine and that ruined the mood of the scene. The movie did many good things that made it feel more genuine like the scenery, but some of the cast choices could have been worked on. The movie left many details from the book that contributed to the plot and helped the reader feel the emotions and thoughts the author was trying to convey. These changes did not ruin the movie but left out key moments that made the viewer understand what the characters were thinking. One change that the director could have left in, was the scene with Lily and Rosaleen cleaning up the spilled honey jars Lily had broken after she found out the truth of her mother. This scene was very beneficial to the plot because when Lily was breaking the jars, it was a moment of breaking down, she was heartbroken and was letting out her anger. Then, when Rosaleen helped her clean up the broken jars, she is helping Lily recoup, symbolizing the rebuilding of Lily's broken heart. A scene like this could have encapsulated the love Rosaleen has for Lily and how she acts as a stand-in mother who is always there for Lily. The movie was an ok remake of the book, it had many great parts that helped it be a story one could get lost in but many aspects could have been worked on to make it much better than it could have been. I do not recommend watching this movie until you have read the book first because the movie skips many parts that would have helped the viewer understand and enjoy the movie more. The movie is a 2.5 out of 5, some parts were enjoyable, however, most of the movie felt rushed. If the viewer had not read the book before, the movie, they would be confused since many important facts and events were chosen to be removed. The movie is perfect for parents and children 14+. Since it touches on very important topics like racism during 1965, it has racial slurs. Looking past the faults, this still is an educational movie that teaches the viewers of Racism and woman power which is very helpful in learning America's history and the things that happened back then.