The Secret Life Of Bees
The Secret Life Of Bees is a reasonably charming - if quite slight - story regarding family and belonging and with the inevitable lump of mid-60s American southern racism - though fortunately the racism isn't all-pervading, and there is more going on in the film than just that. Still, there's no real surprises here, the main revelation isn't exactly earth-shattering, and some of the side-plots seem particularly aimless (notably the woman who keeps on refusing marriage proposals, a storyline which seemingly only exists in order to have a resolution). Nevertheless, despite my wariness over a film that didn't star many people I've exactly liked in the past, I did enjoy this, largely due to a set of decent performances, and an underlying story that did hold the attention even while offering little novelty.

Dakota Fanning hasn't been high on my list of 'supposedly good child film stars that I actually agree are good' but her performance here is in the main very good. Her accent is decent and avoids being grating, and with a few small exceptions I had no qualms about her work here. It's probably also fair to say that Queen Latifah hasn't been one of my favourite actresses either, but I really enjoyed her performance here - she's the moral centre of the film and an imposing yet friendly presence whenever she's on the screen. Paul Bettany pulls off 'nasty father being vaguely abusive to his daughter' in a workmanlike fashion but there's little innovative in what he does. Jennifer Hudson's role didn't really grab me, while by definition a passive role it seemed a little too passive. Alicia Keys has a character too irrationally moody to like, and Sophie Okonedo's character is done rather well but is a bit too random to get to grips with.

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, though my expectations were rather low to begin with. 6.5 out of 10.