This fairytale of the civil rights era is all honey and no sting. Adapted from the bestseller by Sue Monk Kidd, it casts Dakota Fanning as a runaway teen in 1960s South Carolina who flees a big bad wolf (Paul Bettany) and finds sanctuary at the capacious pink home of three bee-keeping sisters.

There Queen Latifah's fairy godmother bustles about, nurturing her babies and saying things like "the world is really just one big bee-yard". Racism and real life are but a distant background hum.