Bee flick is asugary sweet hit; THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES *** 12A.

PRECOCIOUS 14-year-old Dakota Fanning and Queen Latifah head up this sepia-tinted, syrupy-sweet coming-of-age flick.

Based on a best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd, it mixes family woes, teenage angst and racism in America 's Deep South in 1964 and buzzes with great performances.

Fanning plays Lily, one of those older-than-her-years types, with a canny knack for self-analysis and deep thinking.

When she was four she shot her mother dead. She was aiming for her abusive father T-Ray (Paul Bettany) who was attacking her mum. The guilt has been hanging around her neck ever since.

She doesn't know much about her mother. All she has left are some mementoes including a painting on the back of which is written the name of a town, Tiburon, South Carolina.

There's not much love between her and her controlling, emotionless father, who makes her kneel on grits - cracked wheat cereal - if he thinks she's been bad.

The only bright spot in Lily's life is their servant Rosalie (Jennifer Hudson) but when racist thugs beat her for trying to register to vote in the wake of the Civil Rights Act, Lily breaks Rosalie out of the hospital and takes her on the run.

Destination? Tiburon.

They follow a series of clues and end up at big momma's pink house, home to the Boatwright sisters. There's benevolent beekeeper August (Latifah), cold June (Alicia Keys) and the sensitive and simple May (Sophie Okonedo).

Sensing they had something to do with her mother, Lily moves in temporarily with Rosaleen and the story of The Secret Life Of Bees takes flight.

It's a sentimental and easy to watch family drama filled with homespun wisdom and lovely performances, particularly from Fanning, who doesn't come across anywhere near as precocious on film as she can do in interviews.

Queen Latifah brings a warm, maternal quality to her character, showing off her versatility as an actress. It's hard to be cynical about this slushy but entertaining and at times moving film.

Even the darker subject matters of Southern race relations in the early 1960s is painted with a sugary coating to make it easier to swallow. Like the characters in the movie, the film's not edgy, nor daring, nor explicitly moralistic, just amiable, sweet and kind.

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QUALITY: Queen Latifa