Secret Life of Bees, The

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The other actress to stand out is, unsurprisingly, Queen Latifa, whose intense screen presence makes her a force to be reckoned with even when she's simply standing in the background, not saying anything.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Above all, it contains characters I care for, played by actors I admire.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Soars on the strength of strong acting and a script that stubbornly refuses to go all sappy and preachy.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Suffused with a golden glow, the movie looks and sounds like a fairy tale.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It warms the heart in the hands of such sensitive storytellers.

TV Guide Perry Seibert

The final result is a bittersweet product closer to honey than treacle.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The filmmakers give Latifah and Fanning room to create characters that breathe in the sweet smell of clover and breathe out the contented sigh of independence.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's the strength of the actresses and their nurturing community that makes this Eden so satisfying.

Premiere Priya Jain

One of the pleasures of the film is that the themes don't hit you over the head.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

An affecting ensemble piece that's destined to generate a fair share of awards-season buzz.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

It's pleasant and often touching, and the well-chosen cast sells what little drama they get, but there's no depth and little affect, and every would-be conflict peters out noncommittally.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Hampered by over-earnestness and tugs too intently at the heartstrings.

Time Richard Corliss

The Secret Life of Bees may not be a "To Kill a Mockingbird" on page or screen, but Fanning is the center of its soul and intelligence. It's Hollywood's job to find strong parts for this precocious genius as she matures into womanhood.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

May be overly sentimental at times, but at least it's about something.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

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.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The film insists so strenuously on its themes of redemption, tolerance, love and healing that it winds up defeating itself, and robbing Ms. Kidd’s already maudlin tale of its melodramatic heat.

Variety John Anderson

Like a mouthful of honey, The Secret Life of Bees is cloyingly sweet and gooey, and you're not quite sure you can swallow it undiluted.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The Secret Life of Bees is a lesson -- or, rather, a whole series of them -- we no longer need to learn. Of course, it's also a divine-sisterhood-defeats-all chick flick, and on that score there's no denying that its clichés are rousingly up to date.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Fortunately, the cast cuts through a cloying script and boosts unsure direction with sharply focused performances.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

Sweat and good intentions will take you only so far. And they take Bees right up to the threshold of entertaining--but not one step further.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Generally works like a drone but sometimes provides glimpses of the queens at the center

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

If you like your sentimentality sweet and sticky, then The Secret Life of Bees is definitely your jar of honey.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The Secret Life of Bees showcases Fanning, who is growing into an impressive teenage actress - even if a scene where she licks honey off an older boy's finger is, well, creeptastic.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Emotes mightily but says precious little.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Thanks to Gina Prince-Blythewood's treacly screenplay and plodding direction, the movie quickly congeals into a mess of sentimental cliches.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The honey runs thick in The Secret Life of Bees, and so does the treacle. The cloying dullness sets in early, although not from the first frame.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Bees is a movie in which a bunch of powerful African American women get their lives upended and in some cases destroyed so a little white girl can feel better about herself.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

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.

Empire Liz Beardsworth

The source material remains affecting and the cast work hard to add dimension to a lacklustre screenplay. But sadly, it adds up to less than the sum of its parts.