Tell It To The Bees Parents Guide

Understanding the Content Before You Let Your Kids Watch

Most people searching for the Tell It To The Bees Parents Guide are trying to figure out whether this film is appropriate for their household. The movie came out in 2019, directed by Ian Rickson, and stars Annabelle Wallis and Joanna Page in a drama centered on a widow who forms a close bond with a younger woman while navigating life in a Scottish village. It has dramatic tension, some emotional intensity, and content that isn't exactly light viewing. The MPAA gave it a PG-13 rating, which tells you something but doesn't tell you everything you need to know. The guide breaks down the specific content categories: language, sexual content, violence, and thematic material. The film contains moderate profanity, including a few uses of stronger language. There are scenes involving romantic and sexual relationships between female characters, though nothing graphic by mainstream film standards. Emotional violence and tension run through much of the narrative, particularly around themes of grief, repressed desire, and family conflict. The pacing is deliberate, which means some scenes linger longer than they might in other films, making the emotional weight feel heavier than it would elsewhere. I spent a lot of time reading these guides for various films when my own kids were younger, trying to calibrate what I was comfortable with versus what the rating system suggested. One thing I learned early on is that the rating systems are built for broad audiences and often miss the nuance that matters for specific families. For example, the PG-13 rating here focuses heavily on the presence of language and romantic content, but it doesn't really prepare you for the intensity of the emotional manipulation themes woven through the plot. That's the part that tripped me up when I screened it for my then-teenage niece. She handled the language fine, but the scenes involving coercive control and emotional abuse from supporting characters sat with her for days afterward. I hadn't flagged that in my initial assessment.

The Specific Content Breakdown

Language makes up a noticeable portion of the dialogue. There are multiple uses of "shit" and "damn," a few mid-movie instances of stronger expletives, and one use of the f-word that lands during an emotionally charged confrontation. It's not excessive by modern standards, but it's consistent enough that parents uncomfortable with any profanity should note it. The sexual content exists primarily in the context of romantic relationship development. Two women share intimate moments, kisses, and implied physical intimacy. Nothing is explicitly shown, but the romantic storyline is central to the narrative and isn't treated as a peripheral element. If your concern is specifically about LGBTQ+ romantic content, that's the primary category to evaluate. If your concern is more about graphic sexual depiction, the bar here is relatively low compared to many adult dramas. Violence and physical intensity are mostly emotional rather than physical. There's a scene involving a fire that creates genuine suspense, a confrontation that turns physical for a brief moment, and general emotional turbulence throughout. The film doesn't shy away from depicting the consequences of repressed emotion, which manifests in ways that feel heavy rather than action-oriented.

I ran into an edge case once where a parent asked me specifically about religious or moral messaging in the film, and honestly, that's not something the standard parents guide addresses well. The film has underlying themes about secrets, honesty, and community judgment that carry moral weight, but they aren't tied to any specific religious framework. What I ended up doing was watching the film myself first, taking notes on the specific timestamps and contexts, and then sharing those with the parents in question so they could make their own call. Generic ratings summaries don't capture the texture of how these themes play out scene by scene.

Practical Considerations for Families

The runtime is approximately 97 minutes, which isn't long, but the deliberate pacing means younger or more easily overstimulated viewers might find it draining rather than boring. The emotional complexity requires a certain level of maturity to process, not just because of the mature themes but because the film assumes you're tracking multiple layers of character motivation simultaneously. People who've been recommended this as a straightforward drama sometimes struggle with the ambiguity. If you're deciding based on age alone, the PG-13 rating suggests 13 and up, but that's a starting point, not a hard line. Some 12-year-olds with mature sensibilities handle it fine. Some 14-year-olds find it overwhelming. The deciding factor tends to be emotional maturity rather than chronological age, and that's genuinely harder to assess than counting expletives on a checklist. One counter-intuitive thing worth noting: the most challenging content in this film isn't the language or the romantic scenes. It's the gaslighting dynamics between certain characters and the way the film depicts the slow erosion of a person's sense of reality through interpersonal manipulation. That's a theme that resonates differently depending on a child's personal experiences, and no standard rating system is going to flag that as a consideration. I've had parents tell me later that they wish they'd been warned about this specifically, because it was the part that stayed with their kid, not anything in the usual content categories.

If you want a more detailed breakdown beyond what a standard parents guide offers, the best approach is to watch it yourself first and note the specific moments that align with your family's thresholds. The film is available through major streaming platforms and digital rental services. Spending 97 minutes on that upfront usually saves a lot of follow-up conversations about whether something was appropriate or not.