'The Secret Life of Bees' doesn't quite fulfil its potential in my opinion; for the film does have its positive points, yet these are outweighed by the inclusion of a troubling quasi-Christian spirituality and the absence of any truly positive male role models.

To take the positive points first, perhaps most striking of all is the film's rich use of colour to create a truly warm and 'homely' feel that by itself helps to endear one to the characters on screen. Queen Latifah's performance as the welcoming and motherly August Boatwright is also pleasant to watch. There are strong messages of the importance of love, forgiveness, trust, and hospitality. And throughout the film there are also clear messages as to the evil of racism and physical abuse. That three black women are seen to run their own successful highly-praised family business is also a positive thing. And finally there is also the aspiration to marriage of June's boyfriend Neil; with the implicit message that marriage is the right thing to do when truly in love.

Unfortunately, these do not counterbalance several areas that offer cause for concern. Of equal prominence are issues regarding spiritual content and feminist content. The first of these centres around the idolatry of a Black Madonna figure the sisters have in their house. This statue forms the centre of their religious devotions and by itself is said to have mystical healing/strengthening properties. Their devotion to this statue is accompanied by the saying of the rosary, which gives out the wrong message as to the true nature of prayer using the rosary. The Black Madonna or Virgin Mary are mentioned throughout the production, yet there is not one mention of God, Jesus or any other male Biblical figure. And that leads me well into discussing the strong feminist undertones of the film. Whilst admirable, as stated above, that three balck women are seen to run their own successful family business, and whilst the women themselves are seen to be kind and hospitable (albeit one through much goading), there are no truly positive male role models in the film to suggest that such qualities are not the sole preserve of women. The film concludes [plot revelations ahead for next few lines] by implicitly suggesting that love from three women is just as good, if not better, as any other kind of love. Granted, Lily's dad is abusive and no role model, but to brush over this fact with little or no regret because she now has three stand-ins, is to miss the point that the ideal environment for children is still to have a mother figure and a father figure (married to one another) to look up to.

Other issues for concern include the portrayal of suicide with a note implicitly suggesting that the victim was quite rational and balanced at the time of committing the act; perhaps even suggesting that said victim did the most sensible thing given the circumstances. That was a little worrying. There was also a line delivered by August, who told Lily that "There is no such thing as perfect love". This might be true with respect to the love that we as humans are able to give to one another, but it is not true when it comes to God's love; which is perfect. In fact St John tells us that "perfect love drives out fear" (1 John 4:18). Finally, I also felt that Dakota Fanning's performance as Lily was also a little off the mark; this might not have been helped by the screenplay which didn't give her character a truly redemptive character arc to work with.

Overall, I would have few concerns with well-grounded Catholics/Christians watching this film; as stated above the film does have a good number of positive points. However, for those that are unlikely to be able to recognise the wheat from the chaff, especially with regards to the spiritual content, this is not a film I would recommend them watching. Also, for any boys or men with poor male role models in their lives, this is not a film that is likely to help change their perceptions.