‘The Secret Life of Bees’: Beekeepers’ blues

The heavier than usual coming-of-age tale is poignant and discomfiting, primarily because it’s set in the midst of a crucial turning point in America’s history. A 14-year-old, Lucy (Dakota Fanning), witnesses racial tension and bigotry when her housekeeper Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) is openly mocked and attacked on their way to a civil rights meeting.

Lucy, burdened by the loss of a mother and feeling unloved by an indifferent father, runs away with the bruised and humiliated nanny. They soon find themselves seeking out a South Carolina town where they could start anew and hide from their tormentors.

“The Secret Life of Bees” quickly creates a depressing atmosphere, presenting the guilt-ridden Lucy’s pathos early on and proceeding with painful depictions of racism in the ‘60s. But soon enough, the ugliness is replaced by lightheartedness and optimism, when the existence of an unusually accepting place is revealed.

Queen Latifah credibly plays a rich, motherly figure who welcomes into her haven the weary pair of runaways. Lucy and Rosaleen are hired as beekeeper and cook, respectively, thankful that all their worries may be behind them at last.

It’s a weepy, eternally relevant story, and it makes you care even when you see some things coming. Fanning and Hudson perform well; the latter actually doesn’t do vocal gymnastics for this role, and is often a comforting, subtle presence. Paul Bettany is commanding as Lucy’s emotion-devoid and frightening father. Pop singer Alicia Keys does okay as one of the more vocal independent women of the honey-making household, although the role feels forced and becomes predictably silly from time to time.

The bee-human life metaphor isn’t really expounded on interestingly, and some revelations regarding Lucy’s past are just too convenient and coincidental. But familiar rotes and flaws aside, “The Secret Life of Bees” is an effective, affecting drama that reflects the universality of growing up, its inherent anguish and joys, and the tough search for acceptance and appreciation.

It opens January 21st. It’s a Greenbelt-Glorietta exclusive.