The Secret Life of Bees: A star-studded noughties melodrama worth your time… and tears

📺 What do you get when you put Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Dakota Fanning, and Paul Bettany in the same room? The short answer is this: magic. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King), 2008’s The Secret Life of Bees — based on the eponymous 2001 novel by Sue Monk Kidd — is a tour de force we would say is criminally underrated.

The plot: Lily (Fanning) is a poor, lonely teenager living with her abusive father (Bettany) and her African-American maid, Rosaleen (Hudson), in 1964’s Southern America. One day, as Rosaleen and Lily head downtown, a group of racist white folks stop them in their tracks and throw insults — Rosaleen would usually take it in stride, but she decided to talk back, causing the men to beat her to a pulp.

Rosaleen is then hospitalized and kept under police custody for daring to fight back, only to be snuck out by Lily, who has decided they’re to run away. With no plan and no provisions, they are armed only with a piece of paper reading “Black Madonna Honey, Tiburon, South Carolina” — one of the very few remaining remnants of Lily’s mother. Their path eventually leads them to May (Sophie Okonedo), June (Keys), and August Boatright (Latifah), and the film begins in earnest.

What we liked: The Secret Life of Bees features a truly star-studded cast, packed with heavyweight cinematic champs who each deliver spine-tingling performances — particularly Okonedo and Bettany. From the soundtrack to the setting to the overall direction, the movie is a wholesome, slow-burning coming-of-age melodrama that had us reaching for the tissue pack every other minute.

The dialogue is incredibly human, with a variety of storylines and subplots that ensured each character had their time under the spotlight. The film takes place following the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and masterfully navigates race, class, and society in the mid-20th-century US of A, showcasing firsthand the trials and tribulations of African Americans in that era.

Our verdict: If you’re tired of fast-paced thrillers and half-baked limited series and could use a slower and masterfully written modern classic, The Secret Life of Bees is that and so much more. Just be warned, tears will fall whether you like it or not.

WHERE TO WATCH- You can rent the film on AppleTV. Watch the trailer on YouTube (watch, runtime: 2:38).