Set in South Caroline in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees is a moving tale about female solidarity in the face of discrimination, based on
Sue Monk Kidd's novel. 14-year-old Lily (Dakota Fanning) is trying to deal with her guilt over her role in her mother's death. When Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), Lily's housekeeper, is physically beaten when she tries to vote, the pair run away from Lily's abusive father (Paul Bettany) in search of a safe haven and answers to Lily's questions about her mother.
As the days get colder, the cinema is a cosy prospect. Several big films are released this month, from romances and comedies to dramas and children's movies with that crossover-appeal. I'd love to know which you're excited about, and which you'll avoid, so take my slideshow poll and tell me if you plan to see or skip each film.
Paul Bettany and Sophie Okonedo wrapped up warm for the premiere of The Secret Life of Bees at the
London Film Festival last night. The movie's other stars who attended the
LA premiere couldn't make it to London last night, but director Gina Prince-Bythewood was there to celebrate the UK premiere. Gina also wrote the screenplay, adapting Sue Monk Kidd's book for the screen, and the novel is one of my possible
future PopUK book club reads: be sure to let me know what you'd like to read!
I've been looking ahead to what we could read together in our
PopUK Book Club. Several film adaptations are coming up, so I've selected a range of such titles as possible future reads. Some have been published recently while some are classics, and different genres are represented, from the short story to children's fiction to chick lit.
Mark Wahlberg had a good weekend. His movie
Max Payne was No. 1 at the box office, with an estimated $18 million.
Oct 17 2008 - 7:45am by
Molly
The Secret Life of Bees: Just Sweet Enough When I left my screening of The Secret Life of Bees I felt comforted and content, and it took me a while to understand why: This movie calls back to older, Southern-set, empowering movies like Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes. Those films celebrate womanhood and the importance (and potency) of female friendship, all against the unique backdrop of the American South.
When I left my screening of
The Secret Life of Bees I felt comforted and content, and it took me a while to understand why: This movie calls back to older, Southern-set, empowering movies like Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes. Those films celebrate womanhood and the importance (and potency) of female friendship, all against the unique backdrop of the American South. The stories are beautiful and sentimental, with tragedy and heartache going hand-in-hand with love and humor.
Queen Latifah was on
SNL this weekend assisting Tina Fey in recreating the VP debates but last night she was cracking up with Will Smith on the red carpet in LA for the premiere of
The Secret Life of Bees. Will was there as a producer and to support Jada who
embraced Fall's latest lace trend and is an executive producer of the film based on the best-selling novel. Dakota Fanning continues to look all grown up while looking perfectly age appropriate.
The
MTV VMAs may have been the talk of the town, but the
Toronto Film Festival proved to be just as star-studded. Jennifer Aniston looked fabulous as usual in her mini black dress for
Management, while Keira Knightley looked like royalty once again on the red carpet for
The Duchess. Brad Pitt showed off his
Burn After Reading and talked about
how little sleep he's getting these days taking care of six kids.
It's not every day that the film adaptation of a well-loved book appears to capture the same atmosphere and sentiments that the book does, but in my opinion, the trailer for
The Secret Life of Bees looks like it might do just that. I loved the novel by Sue Monk Kidd; it was one of those books that left me feeling sad at the end because I had to part with characters I'd come to care about deeply.
The story follows 14-year-old Lily (Dakota Fanning) whose mother died, leaving Lily with an abusive father.
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