ADAPTED from Sue Monk Kidd?s best-selling novel of the same title, ?The Secret Life of Bees? tells an emotional tale of racism and the search for identity set after the enactment of the American Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination and segregation in all forms.

Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) is a 14-year-old girl whose only memory of her mother is that she accidentally shot herself to death when Lily was very young. She is further tormented by his abusive father, Terrence Ray ?T. Ray? Owens (Paul Bettany), who takes out his aggression on her and insists Lily?s mother abandoned her and only came back for her clothes on the day she died.
Determined to find out the truth, Lily runs away with her black caregiver and only friend, Rosaleen Daise (Jennifer Hudson), who got beaten up by three white men after attempting to register as a voter, to Tiburon, South Carolina, which Lily discovers as the place that holds the only clue to her mother?s past.

They land on the doorstep of August Boatwright (Queen Latifah), a black woman who generously takes them in and agrees to let them help around the house and the bee farm, which produces the honey their family sells.

Fascinated by the fact that there are educated and highly cultured black people amid the prevalence of prejudice against African-Americans, both Lily and Rosaleen find their long-coveted home, living with August and her sisters, May (Sophie Okonedo) and June (Alicia Keys).

At the Boatwright house, Lily learns new things about herself, gains a deeper perspective on life and on black people, and meets her first love, Zach Taylor (Tristan Wilds), an African-American boy who helps August tend to the farm.

Though she has found a mother figure in her newfound home, she soon realizes she must first come to terms with her own past and find out the truth she has long been searching for.

Fully brought to life

In general, the film hews closely to the book. In the book, the entire story is told from the perspective of Lily. The film devotes a significant amount of time to maintain its focus on her while also showing how the other characters develop and complement her personality.

Fanning and the other actors, notably Latifah and Alicia Keys, are notable. Hudson seems underutilized.

The novel explores, among others, racism and feminism, which are vividly depicted by the film?s characters, mostly females.

Lily, though not a typical racist who harasses colored people, shows certain signs of discrimination in the beginning when she indirectly suggests all blacks are uneducated and uncultured, just like Rosaleen. In a way, she struggles both with finding her identity and overcoming her perception of blacks.

August best personifies the power of the all-female Boatwright house by showing strength, conviction, wit, and, most of all, by ensuring the success of her family?s bee farm, which, as shown in both novel and film, has become popular among African-Americans and whites alike. She mainly serves as a comforter to the troubled May and a guide to the stubborn June?which Lily sees as something she?d like to be when she grows older.

?The Secret Life of Bees? is a powerful and moving drama on discrimination, identity and female empowerment. Just like in a beehive in which the female or queen bee dominates the community, women can make a difference regardless of their color and race.