The Secret Life of Bees (film)

In 1964 South Carolina, Lily Owens lives on a peach orchard with her abusive, widowed father T. Ray. 10 years earlier, the four-year-old Lily accidentally shot her mother as she was attempting to leave him.

In the present day, Lily's 14th birthday is approaching, and she celebrates the signing of the Civil Rights Act with her father’s Black hired help, Rosaleen. On the night before her birthday, Lily sneaks away into a nearby cornfield where she has secretly buried a few mementos of her mother, including a jar labeled “Black Madonna Honey, Tiburon, SC.” She places the picture of her mother on her stomach to feel closer to her as she lays back in the cornfield.

Lily suddenly hears T. Ray calling for her and quickly buries her mothers belongings and tries to quickly button her shirt. She is caught hastily buttoning her shirt by T. Ray who assumes she was out there with a boy and punishes her by having her kneel on a pile of grits for an hour.

On her birthday, Rosaleen takes Lily into town under the pretense of fitting Lily for a bra, but also to give Rosaleen the opportunity to register to vote. The pair encounter a group of racists who beat Rosaleen after she stands her ground against their intimidation, and she is arrested. T. Ray retrieves Lily and takes her back home, but she runs away and breaks Rosaleen out of the hospital, where she’s being treated for her wounds while she awaits jail. They head for Tiburon, with Lily hoping to figure out more about her mother’s past.

It takes two days for Lily and Rosaleen to reach Tiburon and find their way to the home of August Boatwright and her sisters May and June. August has used her skills as a beekeeper to build a successful business. Despite the unlikeliness of Lily's lies about hers and Rosaleen’s circumstances, and June’s suspicions, August takes them in, agreeing to trade room and board for their labor.

Lily becomes an apprentice beekeeper and later discovers May's “wailing wall”, tucked full of little notes about events that have distressed the brittle and sensitive May, as well as her twin sister April, who died in childhood. She also learns about August’s leadership of a small group of women who pray to the life-size statue of a Black Madonna in the Boatwright’s living room for guidance.

In time Lily grows close to Zach, the teenage son of one member in the prayer group and August's assistant beekeeper/godson. Lily and Zach try to watch a movie together, but when they disregard racial barriers, sitting together in the "colored" section, Zach gets kidnapped by a group of townspeople. June and August hide the news from May to try and protect her, but Zach's mother reveals the news to her accidentally. May drowns herself out of grief, to escape the pain of feeling the world's hatred. Although her suicide note predicts Zach will be returned alive, he is and is found the next day.

With May's funeral comes some reconciliation and truth. June agrees to wed her long-time boyfriend who she had previously repeatedly rejected. Rosaleen is asked to be part of the household family, and August says they will call her July. Lily, who already believes she killed her mother, now blames herself for Zach's kidnapping and May's death. She has a breakdown, convinced her mother didn’t want her, feeling unloved and unlovable, and resigns herself to leave before she causes any more harm. Before she’s able to go, August challenges her outlook, and tells Lily about her mother, whom August cared for as a child in Virginia and later sheltered from the abuse of T. Ray.

Meanwhile, T. Ray has figured out where Lily is by using a map she had pinned on her bedroom wall. He comes to Tiburon to take her home with him. However, she refuses to leave, and August, June, and Rosaleen form a phalanx of support. Lily confronts T. Ray about her mother, and he reveals he lied to her; her mother really did come back for her. With angry reluctance, he leaves her to be raised by the Boatwrights.

• Queen Latifah as August Boatwright
• Dakota Fanning as Lily Owens
• Jennifer Hudson as Rosaleen "July" Daise-Boatwright
• Alicia Keys as June Boatwright
• Sophie Okonedo as May Boatwright
• Paul Bettany as T. Ray Owens, Lily's abusive father
• Hilarie Burton as Deborah Owens, Lily's mother
• Tristan Wilds as Zach Taylor, a friend of May, and Lily’s love interest
• Nate Parker as Neil, June's boyfriend
• Shondrella Avery as Greta Taylor, Zach's mother

Early in the film's development, David Gordon Green was set to direct the film and Focus Features was going to distribute it.[2]

Production began on January 7, 2008, in Lumberton, North Carolina, and Watha, North Carolina and ended a few months later. The film was screened in September 2008 at the 33rd Annual Toronto International Film Festival, and had an October 17, 2008, theatrical release.[3]

Original music for The Secret Life of Bees was produced by Mark Isham.

The film features the following songs:

1. "Baby, I Need Your Loving" by Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr.
2. "Come See About Me" by Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr.
3. "Prelude (From The Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 In G Major)" by Johann Sebastian Bach
4. "Six Canonic Sonatas Op. 5" by Georg Philipp Telemann
5. "Sonata No. 3 In a Minor For Cello & Continuo: Allegro" by Antonio Vivaldi
6. "The Honey Song" by Sue Monk Kidd
7. "Beautiful" by India.Arie
8. "Breakaway" by Irma Thomas
9. "Come See About Me" by The Supremes
10. "Doncha Know (Sky Is Blue)" by Alicia Keys
11. "Heaven's My Home" by Sam & Ruby
12. "Hippy Hippy Shake" by The Swinging Blue Jeans
13. "I'm Alright" by Little Anthony and the Imperials
14. "It's All Right" by The Impressions
15. "Keep Marching" by Raphael Saadiq
16. "Mary" by Joe Purdy
17. "Song for Mia" by Lizz Wright

The soundtrack for the film was not released as a soundtrack album.

• The Secret Life of Bees at IMDb
• The Secret Life of Bees at Rotten Tomatoes
• Buncle, Ross (Mar 14, 2009). "The Secret Life Of Bees". Movie reviews. Boomtown Rap.