Film Review: The Secret Life of Bees

After staying after school an average of 2 hours every day this week, I was in desperate need of a "me" day today. Thanks to Facebook, I am recently back in touch with a long-lost friend who is also a massage therapist. She came to the house this morning and we multi-tasked--she gave me a fantastic 90-minute massage and we caught up on each other's lives and the lives of people we know mutually.

We made plans to meet at the Santa Anita mall and go see The Secret Life of Bees. It seems our movie tastes are pretty near identical. So, 90 minutes after those first 90 minutes, we met to enjoy the movie.

I read the book, by Sue Monk Kidd, around 4 years ago when it was very popular, but I didn't remember much. It didn't matter, the movie was lovely and stood alone as a quality film that dealt with family, racial prejudice, and love.

Dakota Fanning (who I don't really like, but, I'll admit the girl can act) plays Lily Owens, a 14-year old in Virginia in the mid 1960's. Lily lives with her volatile father, T-Ray (Paul Bettany) and housekeeper Rosaline (Jennifer Hudson.) The only thing she knows about her mother is that she shot her dead by accident when she was 4 years old. And, depending on how angry he is, T-Ray manipulates Lily's feelings by telling her that her mother didn't want her.

When Rosaline insults a white man in town and is beaten and arrested, Lily decides they both need a new start. She rescues Rosaline and heads for a town named Tiburon. She is inspired by a small wooden plaque that belonged to her mother. On the front is a picture of a black Madonna and child. The word "Tiburon" is written on the back.

In Tiburon, Lily sees honey jars in a store with the same black Madonna on the labels. The shopkeeper tells her the honey is made by a woman named August Boatwright (Queen Latifah.) Lily feels that meeting August is her destiny. She's right, but for reasons different than she originally thinks.

I've said enough about the premise, but the film deals with Lily and Rosaline's time with the Boatwright sisters: August, June (Alicia Keys,) and May (Sophie Okonedo, in what will probably be a nominated performance.) Each sister's personality is very distinct , but they love and live and depend on each other.

The casting was excellent in the film. All of the actors were at the top of their game. I was actually most impressed with Alicia Keys. We all know the others can act, but I only know Keys as a singer. She was very, very good and has a strong presence onscreen. Queen Latifah, as she often does, plays the character who leads the others and is the voice of reason. And, like always, she does it in a very cool way. Doesn't she seem like she would be an awesome person to just hang out with?

This is a film for all ages that deals with racial issues that our young people need to know about. But it is a fair movie. It doesn't just show the injustices that black people suffered at the hands of the white people before the Civil Rights Act. It shows the hurt that people inflict upon each other within their own race. And, like throughout history, people often hurt the ones they love. The film has a lot of wisdom and balance and a satisfying ending.

Very highly recommended. It is PG-13, but I would say it is appropriate for mature kids as young as 10.

Rediscovery of a masterpiece...again...

When I went to bed last night I decided to put in my DVD of Amazing Grace. I figured I'd watch about half an hour of it and fall asleep. Before I knew it, I'd watched the whole film. It had been several months since I'd seen it and I had forgotten how incredible it is. It seems that whenever I watch it I want to write and tell others about it. I'm sure this won't be the last time.

It is the true story of William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffud,) an MP (minister of parliament) in the late 18th century. When his best friend, William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch,) becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain, he appeals to Wilberforce's sense of fairness and morality and challenges him to take on the daunting task to push for the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British empire.

Wilberforce's efforts go on for years, mostly unsuccessful. However, he has Pitt on his side, a few maverick abolitionists, and John Newton--his former preacher in school and a former slave ship owner who repented of his sins and has sought to redeem himself in his later years. Newton (Albert Finney)also penned the famous hymn Amazing Grace. Wilber (the nickname Wilberforce is known by) visits him periodically for pep talks and encouragement.

After years and years, Wilberforce is tired, sick, discouraged, and ready to let someone else try what he has failed to do. But what he doesn't realize is how many admirers he's amassed, among them, Barbara Spooner (Romola Garai), who, thanks to the efforts of his cousin, Henry, he keeps getting thrown together with. After a luncheon at Henry's house, Barbara persuades Wilber to tell her about his work. His explanation becomes the film we see, which is told in flashbacks up until that point in time.

After that conversation, Wilber is inspired to try to get his bill passed in parliament one last time.

Amazing Grace is one of those special films that is perfect from start to finish. The story and acting are SUPERB. It did not get a lot of publicity and it's almost *too* good to appeal to the masses. There are no impressive special effects and adventure scenes, as it is mostly dialogue. It is also interesting to note that a movie about slavery hardly shows any slaves. To illustrate the mentality of the arguing lawmakers and social elite, the images of slavery are kept in the distance by showing us empty ships and a few haunting images that invade Wilberforce's dreams. But for the most part, you don't think about it until Wilberforce comes along and forces you to think about it. Yet somehow, slavery's looming presence is the strongest character in the film, only making its entrance at the most powerful moments.

Nothing I can say about this film is enough to do it justice, but at this time of year when many of us are thinking about America and freedom, what better time than now to learn about the struggles of others? Amazing Grace's story is one more piece of the puzzle that tries to unite all of humanity. It boggles the mind at how many were and still are resistant to do so.



“The grand object of my parliamentary existence is the abolition of
the slave trade. Before this great cause all others dwindle in my eyes.
If it please God to honor me so far, may I be the instrument of stopping
such a course of wickedness and cruelty as never before disgraced a
Christian country.”
--William Wilberforce

Atone for your assumptions...

Right now I've got Atonement playing in the background. Thanks to Netflix I get to give it another glance.

It is an epic-style movie with a lot to digest, but the themes are universal: making quick judgments, making assumptions with missing information, being stubborn about those assumptions, and then suffering the consequences and oft times making others suffer along with you.

In this case, those actions are all the result of 13 year-old Briony Tallis, the youngest of 3 who grows up in a monstrous estate in the English countryside. She's lonely, she's at an impressionable age, she longs to be part of grown-up things, she's a bit of a control freak, and she has a vivid imagination. Four events occur to create what she thinks happened one evening in the house: a play she wrote was never performed, she witnesses a flirtatious scene between her sister and a servant's son, later she witnesses a sexual scene between the two, and she witnesses a rape. Perhaps because her play was never performed, she created a real-life one of her own because she does say that " a play depends on other people..."

It is a lesson for all of us when we make snap judgments. We don't have the luxury of having the film rewound to show what really happened or having the blanks filled in to show the pieces of information Briony lacked while making her assumptions.

Briony, who is played by 3 stellar actresses at different ages, spends the rest of her life trying to atone for her childhood foolishness. Those who suffered at her hands have their lives changed forever as well.

Saiorse Ronan, Romola Garai, and Vanessa Redgrave do an amazing job as the 3 Brionys at ages 13, 18, and 77, respectively. You are convinced you are watching the same person growing, learning, repenting, and trying to make things right over her lifetime.

James McAvoy and Keira Knightley (both superb) are the long-suffering couple who fall victim to Briony's imagination and stubbornness, despite that fact that they are probably her 2 favorite people. What do they say? You always hurt the ones you love? Why is that? Is it because we feel like we know them perhaps better than we do? Is it because our emotional investment in our loved ones makes us put on blinders? This film raises those questions.

Set against the backdrop of World War 2 and its ravaging effects on England, Atonement shows what MAY have happened, what DID happen, and what COULD have happened. And it does these in a beautiful and compelling way. I have new respect for this film.