The Secret Life of Bees

[2.0
stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
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A Chick Flick Evening at Pun Salad Manor.

It's all about Lily, a young white girl growing up in South Carolina in 1964. She has her problems, having years ago accidentally shot and killed her mom during an episode of domestic violence. Her dad is alive, but a strict disciplinarian, making her kneel on uncooked grits for rule infractions.

So Lily runs away with her black nanny, off to a honeybee farm run by the black Boatwright sisters. There she's accepted and gradually does a whole bunch of coming-of-age stuff.

It's the 1960s South, so there is unsurprisingly a lot here about ugly confrontations with white racism and the dying gasps of segregation. The Boatwright sisters all have their own problems with life and love, most of which we learn about. Lily will learn the truth about her mother's murky past, and come to terms with her guilt and lack of self-esteem. And, unfortunately, there's a lot of earnest pop-psych dialog involved with all this. Here's one from the IMDB quotes page, where Lily is conversing with May, one of the Boatwright sisters:

Lily: Miss May, I know you get real sad sometimes. My daddy never feels. He never felt anything. I had rather be like you.

May: A worker bee weigh less than a flower petal, but she can fly with a load heavier than her. But she only lives for or five weeks. Sometimes not feeling is the only way you can survive.

A little of that sort of thing goes a long way for me. And, in this movie, there is not a little of that sort of thing. There is, in fact, way way too much of that sort of thing.

Last Modified 2024-01-31 5:24 AM EDT