Publications
Partners
Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) has a gift. She may not be the most diligent student, but she has an uncanny knack for spelling. When her principal forces her to enter the school’s spelling bee, Akeelah resists at first. After all, what use is spelling on the mean streets of South Los Angeles? It’s only when she meets an inspirational mentor, Dr. Joshua Larabee (Laurence Fishburne), that Akeelah wakes up to the world of competitive spelling.
What we thought of it:
When you say “spelling” to most people, it doesn’t exactly conjure up excitement. Most of us think of classrooms, blackboards and notes that say “35 out of 100 – disappointing”. Even in America, where competitive spelling is commonplace, it’s hard to sell a movie based around watching kids spell “Xylem” or “Pterodactyl”. But Akeelah and the Bee is the kind of wholesome, feel-good fare that makes even this unusual topic palatable.
A large part of its appeal comes, strangely enough, from the many conventions it gleefully co-opts. It turns little Akeelah’s journey into a mental version of Rocky or Glory Road, complete with training montages and inspirational speeches. It also leans heavily on the troubled-teen-and-inspirational-mentor subgenre, borrowing from everything from Stand and Deliver to Good Will Hunting.
But while it may have borrowed its structure from other movies, its heart is all its own. Writer / director Doug Atchison spent over a decade trying to get this story made, and the affection he feels for the project is clear in every frame. With his keen eye for detail and thoughtful framing, Atchison has a knack for bringing otherwise mundane scenes to life.
And his enthusiasm has clearly filtered down to the rest of the crew. Lit by journeyman Cinematographer M. David Mullen, the film has a polish not normally associated with small independent projects. This goes double for the strong score and triple for the excellent editing and unobtrusive production design. You get a sense that this is a labour of love for everyone involved – which is the whole reason independent film exists in the first place.
In the end though, it’s the cast that really makes Akeelah and the Bee worth watching. The adults are credible enough, with Laurence Fishburne putting in a finely judged performance as a reclusive professor, but the kids are the ones who steal this show.
Young Keke Palmer is every bit as talented as the girl she portrays, with expressive eyes and an easy charm that makes her very hard to dislike. J.R. Villarreal is equally delightful as Akeelah’s vivacious friend Javier, and Sean Michael plays the tragic villain with aplomb.
In case you’re wondering, the phrase “spelling bee” originates from 19th century America, when communities used to gather to perform tasks like husking corn (a “husking bee”) or compete with each other at skills like sewing (a “quilting bee”) or spelling words. Wherever they came from, spelling bees are now a serious business in North America, with televised national competitions and cash prizes.
To its credit Akeelah and the Bee concentrates on the nobility of winning, and not on the cash. This is an underdog story at its most pure – as corny and wide eyed as they come and, like Freedom Writers, we’ve seen most of it before. But look past the obvious flaws and you’ll see something special: a film that really means what it says.
- Alistair Fairweather
