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Last Updated: Nov 21st, 2008 - 11:22:57 |
At its best, “The Secret Life of Bees” is a profound portrait about racial harmony in the American South during the turbulent Civil Rights Movement. At its worst, it might be re-titled “The Last Mammy,” as, it depicts how during the same time, more black women stepped away from employment that they had been trapped in—as the nannies or mammy servants to white families, most especially in the South.
Based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd, the story is told through the eyes of Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning), a young white girl who lives with her father and also lives with a terrible guilt about her deceased mother. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Love and Basketball,” “Disappearing Acts”) manages to balance a sense of magic and innocence in Lily’s life with her harsh reality living with an abusive father. There is also the intriguing character of Rosaleen Daise (Jennifer Hudson), a seemingly simple-minded woman who works as a housekeeper/nanny in Lily’s house and decides that she is going to take the bold step of registering to vote.
On some level both the young girl and the woman need to leave the house and when they do, their lives are changed forever when they find the home of the Boatwright sisters—May, June and August, (Sophie Okonedo, Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah). The sisters are rare find for Lily and Rosaleen in that they are “educated and cultured colored women,” own a large home and have a successful business making honey. We also learn that the sisters are part of a larger community of women who have a special form of worship that gives them strength in the midst of a community that denigrates their humanity.
Between the sense of magical realism, turbulence of the times and interpersonal dramas of Lily and all the women, there is plenty to keep this story afloat. Still, it proceeds rather slowly in some moments. Fanning is able to carry the film and I really enjoyed Tristan Wilds (“The Wire”) in a role that allows him to continue to grow and stretch as an actor. The supporting actresses ably play their part: May as the emotional wreck that Okonedo plays so well, June as the budding black nationalist with a short afro and August, who takes on the big sister/matronly role—all of which brings us back to mammy.
You are your own best judge for your tolerance for another story about how black women are either called upon to take on, or take upon themselves, the role of nurturer and force of transformation in the lives of whites. Perhaps mammy is the original “magical Negro.” While I find lots in the movie to admire—the acting, direction and overall production—it is still a version of our history funneled through the voice and sensibilities of a white person with fond memories of mammy.
Review Bonus: “W”
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| Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell in "W." |
With the now-familiar parodies of President George W. Bush on late-night shows such as “Saturday Night Live” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and with a wealth of real-life material that no comedic writer could top, it would have been easy for director Oliver Stone to make a comedy that skewers Bush as a clueless idiot.
Instead of easy laughs, Stone creates something else: an unsparing drama, filled with masterful performances, which also skewer Bush as a clueless idiot. The beginning scenes, chronicling Bush’s years as a young man, are choppy and don’t add as much to the narrative as they could. But the gold in this movie are the scenes depicting the inner-workings of the Bush administration as it plotted and executed its disastrous invasion of Iraq.
Josh Brolin turns in a good performance as Bush but the supporting cast—including Thandie Newton as Condoleeza Rice and Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell—is outstanding. “W” doesn’t make us laugh as much as it leaves us in deep thought about the state of United States politics—and leadership.
This review also appeared on Tom Joyner's BlackAmericaWeb.com,/i>
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