Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

moonspinner55 Dakota Fanning gives a sensitive, thoughtful, if somewhat familiar performance as a troubled white teenager in the racially-charged South, circa 1964, who has run away from her abusive father and now finds herself boarding with three black sisters in South Carolina who have inherited the family business, manufacturing and jarring the best honey in the county. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood also adapted her overcooked script from Sue Monk Kidd's bestseller, and the melodramatic entanglements that push the plot forward are often ridiculous and illogical. Prince-Bythewood, attempting to get every little nugget of sentimentality and 'importance' from Kidd's novel onto the screen, leaves some of her supporting characters wanting--what with a perplexing (and unlikely) suicide and the kidnapping of an innocent black boy by police which is summed up by an infuriating series of hugs. The ladies (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Sophie Okonedo) are an interesting, magnetic trio, but Jennifer Hudson (as Fanning's caretaker who escapes along with her) seems to get lost in the shuffle. Some marvelous moments are ultimately undercut by too much artificial sweetening. ** from ****

jotix100 We are taken to rural South Carolina where T. Ray Owens (don't you like those Southern names?) and his wife Deborah, are fighting, while their four year old daughter, Lily, is watching her father beat up his wife. The reason appears to be connected with the fact she wants out of a bad marriage. During the struggle there a shot is fired, killing Deborah.Years have gone by, Lily is a teenager when we meet her again. T. Ray is has kept his mean attitude, not only toward his daughter, but toward Rosaleen, their live-in maid, as well. The time of the action is the 1960s when blacks saw a ray of hope by the laws that would allow them to become first class citizens, something that up to this point, had been denied to them. Rosaleen feels she must register to vote. Unfortunately, she is assaulted by some white folks that beat her up. Lily, who has had it with the situation at home, rescues Rosaleen and both flee to a town called Tiburon, a place that is engraved in Lily's mind.Lily and Rosaleen are directed to the house of three black sisters that make a living out of the bees they tend to. The sisters have peculiar names. There is May, who appears to be mentally challenged. June is a young woman that evidently has received a formal education. The eldest sister is August, a proud lady, who takes pity on the new arrivals. August takes Lily under her wing, introducing her to the art of keeping the bees that provide them with a comfortable living. The honey produce is much appreciated all around.Unfortunately, it is still the South. Tiburon has its share of bigots. Lily, who has connected with the kind Zach, accompanies him to town to catch a film. The theater was still segregated. When Lily sneaks out to the balcony, a group of white men pulls Zach away, beating him mercilessly, and taking him away. May, is distraught upon hearing the sad news. Eventually, Zach is brought home, but May is not there to greet him.When T. Ray finds Lily, he wants to take her back with him. She, on the other hand, does not want to have anything with a father she does not love. Lily has found a heaven with the kind sisters that take her in without asking anything. At the end Lily finds out the truth about her mother and the connection with the sisters.Gina Prince-Bythewood adapted and directed Sue Monk Kidd's beloved novel of the same title. To her credit, she has stayed away from the sentimentality that could have easy been the wrong approach to bringing the story to a cinematic form. The Boatwright women are depicted in vivid detail as each one deals with the newly arrival of Lily into their midst. The era of the bigotry in that part of the country takes second seat to the relationship between the Boatwrights and Lily.Queen Latifah's August shows a regal lady that is too wise as well as nurturing. Dakota Fanning, now a teenager herself, works effortlessly with Lily, something that appears to come naturally to her. We especially liked Sophie Okonedo, a sensational actress, that moves the viewer with her take of May. Paul Bettany is seen briefly as T. Ray. Alicia Keys plays June.

davidthomaswebb-1 This is one of the greatest films that I have ever seen! It should have won the Oscar for best picture. It wasn't glitzy but it dealt with important issues of life. All of the performances were superb! Queen Latifah gave a bravura performance that exerted a calm, loving force to the film. Dakatoa Fanning was marvelous in a restrained performance that burst through at key points in the story. Sophie Okonedo played an intriguing and captivating character who balanced the absence of emotion in Alicia Keys' role. Paul Betany's performance was so good that I didn't recognize him until I saw the credits. The central theme was love in its many manifestations and we need more experiences like this. The cinematography was beyond beautiful. This film was pure poetry in an age of chaotic noise.

TxMike When you have seen thousands of movies, as I have, rarely does anything come along that has truly novel story elements. That is a feature of this movie, set mostly in the summer of 1964, in South Carlonia. It has white vs black bigotry and it has a young girl unhappy at home, elements that I have seen in any number of movies. Add to that I remember 1964, I was in college, I lived through those rough times.So what makes this particular movie a cut above average? It is the fine ensemble cast, which has 14 year old Dakota Fanning as its focus. It is about a young girl who lost her mother at age 4, whose dad is not particularly warm and caring, who goes on a pilgrimage to seek the truth. In the process she gets with a family that keeps bees, and she learns about the secret Life of Bees in the process.Dakota Fanning is Lily Owens and in an early scene we see that she accidentally, at age 4, shoots a gun which apparently kills her mother who had been gone, but came home. Her dad has always told her it was to get her things, but not her daughter.After a particular racially-charged incident young Lily and her housekeeper Jennifer Hudson as Rosaleen hit the road and eventually seek refuge at the Pepto-pink home of the Boatwrights who make honey with a picture of a black Mary on the label. Queen Latifah is August Boatwright, Alicia Keys is June Boatwright, and Brit Sophie Okonedo is May Boatwright.In a role that is hard to recognize him, Brit Paul Bettany is the dad, T. Ray Owens.Good movie, with a fine ensemble cast.SPOILERS: After Lily and Rosaleen become accepted as members of the Boatwright clan, T. Ray shows up, finally figuring out where Lily had gone. As it turns out, the same place Lily's mother had gone to get away from T. Ray. In fact August had been Lily's nanny in years past. After first insisting that Lily go home with him, he eventually resigns to leaving her there "with her three mommas", but before he goes Lily asks him if her mother really did NOT come back for her. He told her he lied all those years, she really did come back for her daughter. Why did he lie? "Because she did not come back for me." Lily achieved closure.