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Akeelah And The Bee
Director: Doug Atchison
Cast: Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne
Rated: G
112 minutes
Lately there has been an absolute boom in crazy word competition movies. Movies about scrabble, spelling bee competitions, crossword puzzles (all available at our fantastic library by the way) Sure those movies are all documentaries, but still it’s almost enough to be classified as a sub category. Thus, with a worn track ahead, Doug Atchison decides to toss his latest piece to the pile. This particular morsel takes the geeky, pressure cooker atmosphere that is a spelling bee and combining it with the most watered down over used poor-kid-beats-all-odds-to-beat-rich-kids plot he creates an entirely watchable film.
A black girl with gang-bang brother, dead dad, and over worked/acting mother dares to dream of becoming a champion speller. Oh but she’s a spicy meatball with issues and must be coached by the golden pipes of the always reliable Laurence Fishburne. Together they overcome obstacles, adversity and some very big words. An our gang like group of kids surrounds the contest and it’s no use putting money on who’s going to get cut first, you can see it coming a mile away. If you keep in mind you’re going to see a movie where a little girl obviously win a national spelling bee, you’ll be alright. If you want the real deal with far more tension and anguish check out the aforementioned documentaries (did I mention our fantastic library?). On the chance you prefer something with a predictable disney-esque formula, well then, you make yourself a date with the bee.
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