Review: “The Secret Life of Bees”

 

“The Secret Life Of Bees” has the misfortune of emerging precisely when people expect more from a film that addresses racism.

Based on the best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, it is set in 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina.

The film immediately plunges into the nightmare that lives in the heart of 14-year-old Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning).

She bears the burden of an unforgivable act: “I killed my mother when I was four. That’s what I knew about myself. She was all I wanted and I took her away. That’s all that mattered.”

She tries to find out about her mother, only to learn from her abusive father T-Ray (Paul Bettany) that her mother had abandoned her long before the fatal accident.

In search of the truth about her mother

When her black housekeeper Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) is beaten and imprisoned for offending three racists, Lily rescues her and they both run off to find out the truth about her mother.

“They’re so cultured. I never met coloured women like them before.” — Lily

They are led to the Boatwright house, where three black women live in a privileged position in society, running a honey-making business.

Full of sage anecdotes, beatific patience and maternal kindness, August (Queen Latifah) is the metaphorical Queen Bee that takes Lily under her wing.

She says on Lily’s first day of working in the hives, “The world is really just one big bee-yard, the same rules work in both places… send the bees love, every little thing wants to be loved.”

Star-studded cast — perhaps too many stars

As the overly-empathic, child-like sister May Boatwright, Sophie Okonedo’s talent is slightly underused, but she still manages to put in a solid performance.

Alicia Keys executes her role as defiant June Boatwright with regal beauty and grace. But we never understand why she is so afraid to fall in love with her beau, and the triumphant moment where she finally gives in to him fails to resonate fully.

Bettany’s portrayal of the unhinged T-Ray is fascinating in its paradoxes, often leading us to sympathise with him even when he attacks Lily after tracking her to the Boatwright house.

“Sometimes not feeling is the only way you can survive.” — May

Something sweet amidst racial tension

The intricacies of the beehive are reflected in the complexity of the racial tension in the society, which is still able to produce something sweet: the honey of the budding romance between Lily and Zach (Tristan Wilds), a black teenager who works for the Boatwrights in the beehives.

By the time the film rolls around to this culmination point when they risk his life so they can watch a film together, the audience has almost forgotten that interracial coupling is a big no-no.

And they have to keep reminding us – because at times the race issue almost seems thrown in for good effect: the story of a girl in search of the truth about her mother may have worked just as well without the subplot of racism.

Film doesn’t measure up to novel

The seductive and passionate writing of Kidd’s novel falls flat as the metaphors leap out at you mercilessly and much too soon on the screen.

Yet there is something redeeming and magical in the muted action that unfolds in the slow, hazy days around the honey-house.

We see the web that interweaves the personal and the political of the Civil Rights Movement, the brutality and love of a parent, and the danger and euphoria of first love.

As a feel-good coming-of-age story, it works well enough – but the cohesion with the racism around them and the buzzing life-force of the apiary is stilted at best.

Though it lacks the sensuality of the novel, the same message remains, best encapsulated by June’s snide comment: “It’s ironic how white people hate us so much when so many of them have been raised by black women.”

 

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT

 

There has been over a month-long silence on this little blog of mine, while it was assessed for my coursework [MA International Journalism at the University of Westminster, London]… while I battened down the hatches to survive another Christmas far away from the warmth of my homeland… while, in truth and in fact, there was nothing much to say.

Today we rushed through our first Online class, speeding through the rudiments of web design, so that we could wrap up in time to see the inauguration.

We were in News Room 2 which has a big projector screen and four other screens, and people from all over the department, students and staff alike, trickled in to catch a glimpse.

We could hear the echo from the room beside us — another screen was up next door. 

We were only a few of the millions that gathered to watch.

“You’ve got a good-looking president there,” I said to my American friend who was sitting beside me.

Her good-looking president represents love, change, and hope for the whole world — dang, he’s got a lot to live up to!

There’s been million of articles written about Obama’s inauguration, but I’ve decided to focus my blog not on the content of the journalism about it, but about the journalism itself:

 

Obama inauguration trumps THA elections 

• In Trinidad & Tobago, we have 3 daily newspapers — The Trinidad Guardian, The Trinidad Express, and the Trinidad & Tobago Newsday. 

 
Newsday’s front page was concerned with THA (Tobago House of Assembly) Elections, with a note to turn to a page inside to see the Obama inauguration story. 
 
Express’ front cover had it half-and-half with their two photos — half about THA and half about Obama. 
 
Guardian was the newspaper that went all out Obama, with just a sprinkle of THA at the bottom:

I found it really interesting because it was not just a humdrum news day in the little island. Elections — huge news appeal! 

But Guardian decided (and, I agree with them) that Obama was bigger news that elections in our own country.

This shows precisely how news values work, how the connection with the US is so pertinent to our little country.

…And on top of that, what a photo! What a caption! OBAMA IN CHARGE… of our little island? Or the world?…

 

Wikipedia information battle about Obama article 

• The other thing I found interesting was Wikipedia. 

There were loads of corrections made that day, and around 5:00p.m. there was a flurry of them, if you want to have a look: go here. 

Can you imagine, how many people around the world, were on Wikipedia that day, just waiting? 

People were so anxious to change his information that someone changed it back with the note: 
16:26, 20 January 2009 Inigmatus (Talk | contribs) (138,453 bytes) (not yet president. please wait until after 12 noon EST.)
  

Journalists poised to press the publish button

• Mere seconds after he was sworn in, up popped news articles online — in past tense, of course — about the swearing in ceremony, many of them “colour pieces”, describing the mood of the ceremony, how his head was bent down, and so on.

Wow. This is history in the making — at the speed of light.

These articles had to have been written ages before, with just those “colour” words thrown in right before it was published: imagine the millions of journalists around the world, just waiting for the second hand of the clock!

 

The bots prove it: something to talk about

Those were just a few newsworthy aspects of the inauguration from a slightly different angle…

Beyond the millions of spectators, beyond the thousands upon thousands of security personnel, beyond his little gaffe about “execution” during the swearing-in, beyond all of it… the numbers prove it, the little bots squirreling around in cyberspace prove what no mere words can fully encapsulate:

Obama is something to talk about. The world over, he is something to talk about.

Congratulations Mr. President

ICE-SCULPTING FESTIVAL

 

I attended London’s first Ice-Sculpting Festival which ran from 9-11 January and took place outside the National History Museum. I went on the last day, Sunday 11th.

Giant blocks of ice, weighing around 2 tons each, were sawn and chiselled into works of art that interpreted the theme “wildlife in the city” by ice-sculpting teams from Britain, France, Italy, Holland and Bulgaria.

As reported in The Daily Mail, the festival was the brainchild of freelance art critic Carol Cordrey, who saw a snow-scultping competition on holiday in Switzerland.

The Dutch team of two, Lars Borst and Marjon Katerbergtook, took first prize in the contest for their depiction of a woman peeling a flower. 

Other entries included a giant pigeon by the British team, two sharks holding a bag of money (representing the city) by the French team, a woman in the ice by the Bulgarian team, and worker ants by the Italian team.

During the three days of the festival, patrons were also invited to learn to sculpt themselves – which, of course, I did: