The Secret Life of Bees (2008)
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
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. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.
4 connections found
View:
4 connections, in both directions
What critics compared The Secret Life of Bees to
Lily's personal story and conflict might have been touchingDakota Fanning (2006's " Charlotte's Web ") gives it her all in the rolebut her journey toward finding a place in the world and people who show her love in return is handled with the strained construction and obvious fabrication of something that might be found in a screenwriting handbook.
Also worthy of ample praise is the superb work of Emily Alyn Lind (2008's " The Secret Life of Bees ") as the child version of Linda, pushing herself to the exhaustive limit in difficult scenes where she is faced with the lifeless, bloodied bodies of her parents who just seconds before had no idea their lives were about to come to an abrupt end.
Cinematographer Rogier Stoffers ( "The Secret Life of Bees" ) and the production design team headed by Kalina Ivanov ("Little Miss Sunshine") outdo themselves to make things visually enticing.
Prince-Bythewood is the other kind: in the years since her marvelous debut, the 2000 Love & Basketball, she has made only two features, The Secret Life of Bees (2008) and Beyond the Lights (2014).
Prince Bythewood has been revered as one of a few successful Black women directors in Hollywood, ever since the success of her iconic debut Love and Basketball (2000), which she followed with the high-profile The Secret Life of Bees (2008) and the underrated Beyond the Lights (2014).
There are times when the exposition klaxon sounds and the pacing dips as director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Shots Fired, The Secret Life of Bees) tries to cram in backstory but, like its heroes, The Old Guard does a lot of good along the way.
But just as she did with her last film, 2014’s pop-music romance Beyond the Lights (too long ago!), director Gina Prince-Bythewood ( The Secret Life of Bees ) elevates a familiar genre by immersing us in genuine, unsentimental feeling even as she embraces the tropes.
With titles that include Love & Basketball and The Secret Life of Bees , Gina Prince-Bythewood is the latest filmmaker to take the plunge, and she does so with thoughtful abandonment.
Director Gina Prince-Blythewood (best known for such smaller dramas as “The Secret Life of Bees,” “Behind the Lights” and “Love and Basketball”) approaches her heavily choreographed money shots with a sense of finesse that robs them of their punch.