The review continues… beware of spoiler information in the review….

The Secret Life of Bees begins with Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) at the age of four witnessing her mother, Deborah (Hilarie Burton), being mistreated at the hand of her abusive husband, T. Ray (Paul Bettany). I will not give away too much of the story here, but the story then picks up in 1964, where Lily is being raised by a farm helper named Rosaleen Daise (Jennifer Hudson), and by her father T. Ray. Lily now 14 is going through an emotional time as she wants to learn more about her late Mother. She has some personal affects from her Mother in which one of these was a picture with the name of a town on the back. The picture is actually the label that August uses on her bottles of honey. With this information, Lily and Rosaleen run away and find the home of August and then ask to stay for a while. They trade room and board for assisting August with her honey business. Not to discuss the entire movie, it turns out that Lily is staying at the same house in which her mom stayed while she was having difficulties with her abusive husband (Lily’s dad). It also turns out that August used to help raise Deborah when she was a little girl. Now that Lily is finding out the truth about life and death and the story behind her Mother, T. Ray comes to take her home. Lily argues and then stands up to her dad and with support from August, decides to stay with August, June and Rosaleen.

Overall the Secret Life of Bees was an emotional trip into the life of a young girl who has seen a lot in her first 14 years of life. The story was very well told and laid out very well. The cinematography was superb as well, capturing the way society must have felt in the late 1960’s in the South. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes the kind of film that has plenty of emotional drama. - Marc Cohen