X
  • 2008
  • PG-13
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures
  • 1 h 54 m
  • 2008
  • PG-13
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures
  • 1 h 54 m

Summary The Secret Life of Bees, based on the New York Times best selling novel and set in South Carolina in 1964, is the moving tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a ...

Directed By: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Written By: Sue Monk Kidd, Gina Prince-Bythewood

  • 2008
  • PG-13
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures
  • 1 h 54 m
  • 2008
  • PG-13
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures
  • 1 h 54 m

The Secret Life of Bees

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 32 Critic Reviews
57
User Score Mixed or Average Based on 22 User Ratings
5.9
My Score
Hover and click to give a rating Saved

Where to Watch

Summary The Secret Life of Bees, based on the New York Times best selling novel and set in South Carolina in 1964, is the moving tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a ...

Directed By: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Written By: Sue Monk Kidd, Gina Prince-Bythewood

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 32 Critic Reviews
57
44% Positive
14 Reviews
56% Mixed
18 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 32 Critic Reviews
57
44% Positive
14 Reviews
56% Mixed
18 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
88
Soars on the strength of strong acting and a script that stubbornly refuses to go all sappy and preachy.
By Chris Kaltenbach FULL REVIEW
75
On screen something happens that goes beyond Monk's powers of description and Fanning's way of seeming 14 and 44 at the same time.
By Wesley Morris FULL REVIEW
70
Keys isn't given much to do except look as though she's posing for an album cover, but Okonedo's face is a marvel. Every thought, every emotion flickers across it like clouds obscuring the sun.
By Michael O'Sullivan FULL REVIEW
50
Thanks to Gina Prince-Blythewood's treacly screenplay and plodding direction, the movie quickly congeals into a mess of sentimental cliches.
By Andrea Gronvall FULL REVIEW
50
What's being sold here is the movie equivalent of the honey-drenched sweet potato biscuits that are forever being passed around on-screen. Their nutritional value may be nil, but they sure look comforting.
By Carina Chocano FULL REVIEW
50
Only near the end does this likable but saccharine movie fleetingly complicate the "Gone With the Wind"–fed delusion that the love of poor, black nannies for their white charges was undiluted by bitterness.
FULL REVIEW
40
Should have billed itself as a fairy tale, as that’s the only possible way to swallow what Prince-Bythewood and Kidd are feeding us.
By Pete Vonder Haar FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

 View All
User Score
Mixed or Average Based on 22 User Ratings
5.9
59% Positive
13 Ratings
18% Mixed
4 Ratings
23% Negative
5 Ratings

User Reviews

 View All
User Score
Mixed or Average Based on 22 User Ratings
5.9
59% Positive
13 Ratings
18% Mixed
4 Ratings
23% Negative
5 Ratings

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

Details

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Production Company Fox Searchlight Pictures, Overbrook Entertainment, Donners' Company, Dune Entertainment III, Talent One
Release Date Oct 17, 2008
Duration 1 h 54 m
Rating PG-13
Genres
Tagline Bring Your Girlfriends, Sisters, Mothers and Daughters
Website http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thesecretlifeofbees/
View All Details

Awards

Image Awards (NAACP)
• 2 Wins & 9 Nominations
Black Reel Awards
• 3 Wins & 8 Nominations
People's Choice Awards, USA
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations

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