'The Secret Life of Bees' quite wonderful

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo, Paul Bettany

Cert: 15

Quite the most watchable – certainly the most emotional – film of the week, which surprisingly got some poor reviews in the USA.

It’s a roller-coaster of a film with strong writing, sure directing and universally excellent acting from a wonderful cast. What more could you ask of a film?

Fanning, turning into one of filmdom’s most accomplished young actresses, plays 14-year-old Lily, left without a mother and suffering at the hands of an abusive father (great performance from Bettany), who escapes her 1960s South Carolina life with her carer who has fallen into a spot of racial bother.

Together they go searching for details of Lily’s mother’s background and come under the collective wing of the Boatwright sisters (Latifah, Keys and Okonedo).

It’s a film about hope and redemption and love and revival and it’s quite wonderful.

Take a big box of tissues and have a good sniffle.

Star Rating: 5/5