The Secret Life of Bees - Review

The Secret Life of Bees belongs in part to the troubled genre of “magical Negro” stories, in which a white protagonist is somehow enlightened or rescued by a particularly special black person (Jim in Huck Finn is an early example). But happily, Sue Monk Kidd's novel and its adaptation by Gina Prince-Bythewood avoids stereotyping and easy answers, presenting a coming-of-age story that goes easy on the life lessons and forced moments of racial understanding. Crowded with vibrant characters and a wealth of talent, Secret Life of Bees is cuddly enough for Oprah but never cloying, a refreshing take on the more standard, calculated stories of female empowerment.

Dakota Fanning stars as Lily, a 14-year-old who grew up only with her abusive father, T. Ray (Paul Bettany, a surprisingly convincing Southerner), after she accidentally shot her mother at the age of four. When Lily's nanny Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) is beaten by a white mob one her way to register to vote, Lily takes the opportunity to run away from home. She and Rosaleen make their way to the nearby town of Tiburon, South Carolina, where Lily's only remaining mementoes of her mother suggest she'll find a home.

That's precisely what Lily finds at the Pepto Bismol-pink home of the Boatwright sisters, a trio of black women who run a beekeeping business on their property. The oldest, August (Queen Latifah), immediately accepts Lily into her maternal embrace, while youngest sister June (Alicia Keys), a burgeoning Black Power activist, is more skeptical of the white runaway. Also in the house is May (Sophie Okonedo), emotionally damaged by the death of her twin sister some years earlier, who forms an immediate bond with Rosaleen.

The story then follows a series of episodes with each character, as Lily tentatively falls for August's godson Zach (Tristan Wilds), June repeatedly turns down proposals from her boyfriend Neil (Nate Parker, as charming here as he was in his breakout Great Debaters role), and Lily slowly decides to tell August the real reason she's arrived on her doorstep. There's tragedy and a racially-motivated mob attack, but for the most part Secret Life of Bees brings more tears of joy than sadness.

The bees of the title don't amount to much more than a story gimmick-- the Boatwrights could just as easily have been jelly makers or tomato farmers-- and you get the feeling that some characters, May and Rosaleen in particular, were better fleshed out in the book. But each of the actresses stake out their characters as defined individuals, aided greatly by Prince-Bythewood's unwillingness to take the easy way out and make the whole thing about one white girl's coming-of-age. Okonedo is plainly transformed as the childlike May, and even Hudson, who hadn't really demonstrated acting talent to this point, holds her own. Fanning has grown well into adolescent roles, even if she's still over-reliant on wide-eyed stares, and Keys is fierce and funny as the modern June. Latifah, in a role that leans dangerously close to the stereotypical Mammy, brings unusual warmth and intelligence to August.

In fact, it's unusual warmth and intelligence overall that makes Bees such a pleasure, a cut above the sappiness and schmaltz so many directors think women demand in their movies. Filmed beautifully on location in rural North Carolina, Secret Life of Bees captures a South that contains kindness and beauty even in a time of hate, moving beyond some of the usual preconceptions about the Jim Crow era. As a coming-of-age story, the movie is mostly the usual stuff, but it's a rare opportunity to see a group of fantastic actresses in a story that, for once, doesn't revolve entirely around men.

The Nanny Diaries - Review

There’s something you need to know about The Nanny Diaries right off the bat. It’s not a comedy. I know, you’ve seen the film’s cutesy poster with Scarlett Johansson in a potentially comedic position next to her “awww” inspiring little ward; and you’ve seen the commercials with their lighthearted, potentially funny music and awkward situations. This is not that movie. There is not a single laugh anywhere in it, and if there’s supposed to be then the film does an awful job of delivering. No, there’s nothing funny about The Nanny Diaries and I’m going to go ahead here and give them the benefit of the doubt by assuming that, advertising to the contrary, there’s not supposed to be.

Instead The Nanny Diaries has more in common with last year’s Oscar contender Little Children than it does with any kind of rom-com, minus of course the pedophile. In much the same way that Little Children was narrated by an omniscient voice delivering pithy, distant observations; Johansson narrates The Nanny Diaries as if she’s reading a diary she’s written from the perspective of an anthropologist in the middle of a grand social experiment.

Except it isn’t a social experiment or anything nearly so noble. Johansson plays Annie Braddock, a recent college grad who falls into nannying because she’s afraid to live in the real world and most of all, afraid to tell her mother that she doesn’t want to become a boring, corporate muckity-muck. Annie Braddock is afraid of her own life, and though when she moves out of her Mom’s place and into the city she seems to exalt in the freedom that comes with not being at home, she turns right around and throws herself into a situation with even less freedom by becoming a live-in Nanny for a rich, self-absorbed, absent mother who treats her as if she’s a personal slave. Nanny Annie narrates a lot about how much she’s bothered by the way she’s treated, but while her narration protests she simply stands around and takes it, muttering platitudes and “yes maam’s” as if she’s a dog who’s been beaten.

To me, that’s the biggest problem with The Nanny Diaries. It’s hard to watch Annie without dismissing her as simply weak or cowardly. She’s not a bad person, but she’s an empty vessel who seems willing to be pushed and prodded in whatever direction her overbearing employers/slave masters want her to go, while making excuses for her own complicity in their awful behavior as parents. For most of the movie she’s not motivated to do anything or become anything. She barely has a personality. Annie’s employer Mrs. X thrusts her into the role of societal inferior and she accepts it gladly, bumbling around at doing what she’s told, only breaking out of her meek servitude when she’s forced to by circumstances beyond her control.

I guess I’m saying that I don’t know what The Nanny Diaries is about. If it’s about Annie, well that’s a problem since she’s not interesting enough to serve as the focus for this, or any other movie. If it’s about the selfish, wealthy, bad parents of high-society; then my answer is: who cares. Personally, I think The Nanny Diaries is all about trying to be cute, and anything else that happens in it is merely ancillary. It succeeds at that. The film is frequently cute because even at her worst Scarlett Johansson is pretty cute and so is the kid she’s stuck paling around with. Sadly, the movie doesn’t manage much else. Its message, if there is one, is muddled and even with all the heavy handed narration to tell us what we’re supposed to be thinking, it’s hard to figure out why we’re supposed to want to be watching. Still, the film isn’t entirely unentertaining. For at least some of its running time it’ll keep your attention while you try to figure out where it goes. At worst, Scarlett Johansson is fun to look at, even if she doesn’t seem to know what to do with this flaccid character. But Annie’s resolution is unsatisfying and feels tacked on, while the trip to get there is even less than the sum of the film as whole.