The Secret Life of Bees

Big screen adaptation of the wildly successful 2002 novel by Sue Monk Kidd. In 1964 South Carolina, Lily Owens (Fanning), an idealistic 14-year-old girl with no mother, helps her black housekeeper Rosaleen (Hudson) flee the homegrown racism of a small town that had her arrested for trying to vote. The two journey to Tiburon--a place Lily remembers seeing written on her mother's honey jar label--where they're taken in by beekeeper August (Latifah) and her two sisters, June (Keys) and May (Okonedo), and both Lily and Rosaleen discover the strength of womanhood that had been hidden and suppressed all their lives. Fanning truly finds herself in this role, building from the inherent mistakes in "Hounddog." Heartfelt and well-acted all around, but the book's nuances are lost in a somewhat predictable coming-of-age melodrama.