Growing up is hard to do for 14-year-old Lily Owens, who opens the film by admitting that she killed her mother, albeit accidentally, when she was a toddler. In an inspired piece of casting, Dakota Fanning plays the role with the unsettling knowingness that made her a child star. Lily's growing pains aren't helped by her tyrannical father, although Paul Bettany at least suggests hidden layers to his character. It's a shame he doesn't get more screen time, but early on Lily runs away with the family housekeeper Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson). She finds lodging with three black bee-keeping sisters, in what is an almost impossibly quirky set-up for the Deep South in the 1960s. Queen Latifah is August Boatwright, the eldest and wisest woman, who drips platitudes like honey from her hive; Sophie Okonedo is the childlike May, shamelessly yanking the heartstrings; and Alicia Keys plays the independent but aloof sister, June. Like the rank and file of bees, everyone has their place here and they work towards an end product that is sweet but best enjoyed by children.