The Secret Life of Bees (2008)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Gina Prince-Bythewood

Writers (WGA):

Gina Prince-Bythewood (screenplay)
Sue Monk Kidd (novel)

Release Date:

17 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Bring Your Girlfriends, Sisters, Mothers and Daughters

Plot:

set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother...

Plot Keywords:

South Carolina | South | Sister | Southern Accent | Statue

Awards:

11 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Dakota Fanning	...	Lily Owens
Queen Latifah	...	August Boatwright
Jennifer Hudson	...	Rosaleen Daise
Alicia Keys	...	June Boatwright
Sophie Okonedo	...	May Boatwright
Paul Bettany	...	T. Ray Owens
Hilarie Burton	...	Deborah Owens
Tristan Wilds	...	Zach Taylor
Nate Parker	...	Neil
Shondrella Avery	...	Greta
Renée Clark	...	Doll
Sharon Morris	...	Violet
Nicky Buggs	...	Cressie
Jasmine Burke	...	Sugar Girl
Emma Sage Bowman	...	Young Lily #1

Also Known As:

A Vida Secreta das Abelhas (Brazil) [pt]
Bienes hemmelige liv (Norway) [no]
Biernes hemmelige liv (Denmark) [da]
Die Bienenhüterin (Germany) [de]
La vita segreta delle api (Italy) [it]
Le secret de Lily Owens (France) [fr]
Mystiki zoi ton melisson, I (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
Sabor a miel (Argentina) [es]
Sekretne zycie pszczol (Poland) [pl]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for thematic material and some violence.

Runtime:

USA:114 min (director's cut) | Canada:110 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44411) | Ireland:15A | UK:12A | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:G (Québec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Australia:M | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Argentina:13 | Mexico:B | Finland:K-11

Filming Locations:

North Carolina, USA

Company:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Lily and Rosaleen are drinking their Cokes on the grass outside the Boatwright house, you see Rosaleen drink the last of the soda, but you can clearly hear the liquid flowing back into the bottle.

Quotes:

Lily Owens: If your favorite color is blue, why did you paint the house pink?
August Boatwright: [chuckles] That was May's doing. When we went to the paint shop, she latched on to a color called, "Caribbean Pink." She said it made her feel like dancing a Spanish Flamenco. I personally thought it was the tackiest color I had ever seen, but I figured if it could lift May's heart, it was good enough to live in.
Lily Owens: That was awfully nice of you.
August Boatwright: Well, I don't know. Some things in life, like the color of a house, don't really matter. But lifting someone's heart? Now, that matters.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Anne Hathaway/The Killers (#34.4)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

The Honey Song

wonderful movie

I'm not sure why this film got such a bad rating....it's truly one of the nicest films I've seen in a long time! I brought my daughter to see the movie today -- we both had tears in our eyes throughout the movie. The acting was superb, as was the casting. Normally I like to read the book before seeing a movie, as usually the book is so much better. I am glad that my daughter talked me into going to this movie. I think cinematically, it was one of the prettiest movies I've seen in awhile. You are taken from laughing one moment to feeling as though your heart is being tugged out of your body in the next moment. I will definitely be recommending this film to my friends!