The Secret Life of Bees Reviews
ComingSoon.net
All the pieces are there for a good movie but there's an undeniable sense of reluctance to put them into play. Every time it seems like the film might be taking a chance it retreats to safe ground.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6.5/10
sbs.com.au
A sweet, sentimental story with a sting in the tail.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
3BlackChicks Review
Can I tell you a secret? This movie is *really* good. Grab Nana and go see it!
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
BET.com
Bees is almost too sweet, but with enduring enough performances to make a solid movie.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
Uruguay Total
(...) Hay un mérito atendible en la directora y es evitar caer en la sensiblería barata que el asunto arriesgaba.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
MovieTime, ABC Radio National
The story is a gentle depiction of harsh times that works best as a coming-of-age parable, not so well as a historical drama.
FILMINK (Australia)
Once again, Dakota Fanning demonstrates that, even as a teenager, she already has the acting skills and range equal to -- if not better than -- her A-list contemporaries.
Sydney Morning Herald
Glossy yet ultimately shallow, this platitudinous, unconvincing drama makes The Colour Purple look like Mississippi Burning.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
At the Movies (Australia)
On most levels the film, which has a surprising number of unconvincing details, takes the sugary option; it shies away from the harsher realities whenever possible.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Urban Cinefile
A dense story about a little girl and the impact her mother's death has on her makes terrific cinema in this beautifully realised film
Urban Cinefile
The film has a dream-like quality above its punchy emotional core
Donne Tempo
The Secret Life of Bees features another buzz-worthy turn by Dakota Fanning.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Empire Magazine
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Top CriticThere's a purity, clarity and honesty to this feminist heart-warmer's melodramatic instincts that make it surprisingly moving and satisfying.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/6
Film4
Fanning and Latifah form the proficient core of this reliable if humdrum American period drama.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
Times [UK]
Tragedies strike and life lessons are learnt, homespun wisdom is dispensed. It's simplistic to the point of total idiocy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
Guardian [UK]
This fairytale of the civil rights era is all honey and no sting.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Daily Telegraph
It's generous-minded, and though it labours awkwardly to move you, that doesn't mean you won't be moved.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Sky Movies
From the producer of X-Men... comes the dullest, gooiest chick-flick of the year.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Total Film
It'll be way too cloying for most - but the, ahem, bee's knees for sugar fiends. Probably best enjoyed with a glass of Chardonnay and your cynicism on hold.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
