Bees More Honey Than Sting

The Secret Life of Bees is a pretty sweet story, critics agree, but all that honey proved a little cloying for some. The story of a troubled South Carolina teen (Dakota Fanning) set in 1964 is "an affecting ensemble piece that's destined to generate a fair share of awards-season buzz," Michael Rechtshaffen writes in the Hollywood Reporter.

Bees is "awfully gooey" but "nicely anchored in a trio of very good performances" by Paul Bettany, Alicia Keys, and Queen Latifah as the "queen bee" of a trio of sisters, Roger Moore writes in the Orlando Sentinel. The film "rustles the melodramatic curtains with its unraveling of family secrets, coincidences and tragedy,"  Stephen Schaefer writes for the Boston Herald, "but with this cast it hardly matters." (More Queen Latifah stories.)