The Secret Life of Bees

Rating:

* * *

Verdict:

Fried Green Tomatoes doused in honey

Slow and languorous, this screen adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's acclaimed novel is supposed to stay with you long after the final credits. But while themes of racism, mental health, child abuse and religion are touched on, they struggle to penetrate the film's sugar-coating.

Set in South Carolina in 1964 - the year the Civil Rights Act came into being - it focuses on one girl's coming-of-age, set against a wider backdrop of social change.

Lily (Fanning) is a 14-year-old white girl in search of answers - in particular about her mother, who died when she was a small child. Running away from her beastly father - an unsettling turn from the normally affable Brit, Bettany - with her black housekeeper Rosaleen (Hudson), Lily follows the one clue her mother left, to a strange pink house across state.

There, she finds the formidable Boatwright sisters - famous for their golden honey - who take the pair in and teach them the ways of bee-keeping (a physical metaphor for life and how families and communities should work together towards common goals).

Each a distinct personality - Latifah plays the matriarch August, supported by the prickly June (Keys) and loopy May (Okonedo) - the sisters add a warm, if rather predictable, heart to the film.

Fanning's turn as the confused teen is commendable - and far less annoying than her previous outings - but the film's attempts at realism are laughable. Scenes of conflict and real drama are skimmed over, in favour of happier moments where wise ol' black women come up with neat little ditties about life and love.

Set in a time of supreme conflict and tension, the film is altogether too tidy and simple to be believable - more fairytale fable than reality-based fiction.

Still, those who enjoyed the Americana of

Fried Green Tomatoes

or

How to Make an American Quilt

will revel in the honey-soaked hues of the film, while wading through the story's treacle. Others may find it all too much to swallow.

Joanna Hunkin

Cast:

Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo, Paul Bettany

Director:

Gina Prince-Bythewood

Running Time:

110 mins

Rating:

M Screening:Rialto, SkyCity, Berkeley