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"Akeelah" a smart, charismatic story
Movie Review: Akeelah and the Bee
By John Wirt
jwirt@theadvocate.com
Advocate movie critic
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PLAY OFFICIAL TRAILER
out of 4 stars.
Akeelah and the Bee is about a gifted child in South Central Los Angeles who overcomes disadvantages and wins spelling bees. Take the Lead is about disadvantaged New York City youth who find self-esteem through ballroom dancing.
The 2005 documentary Mad Hot Ballroom preceded Take the Lead and 2002’s Spellbound preceded Akeelah and the Bee.
Take the Lead ruins its promising subject matter. Akeelah and the Bee understands its subject and runs with it, beautifully transposing real-life drama into a moving feature film.
To be fair, Akeelah writer-director Doug Atchison conceived the idea for his film years before Spellbound. Accidentally tuning to the televised Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1994, Atchison found himself mesmerized by kids competing in the nation’s most prestigious spelling bee. So Spellbound didn’t inspire Akeelah, but it did show potential investors how exciting and suspenseful spelling bees can be.
Spellbound focuses on eight spellers competing in regional bees. Akeelah and the Bee wisely highlights one 11-year-old girl. Some of Akeelah’s local competition figures in the plot, too, but she is the story’s heart and soul.
Akeelah lives with her single mom, brother and a sister who’s just had a child of her own. It’s not cool to be book smart in her neighborhood. When other kids call her a freak, Akeelah downplays her intelligence. But then her school’s principal (Curtis Armstrong) tells Akeelah she is entering the school spelling bee.
Keke Palmer, a 12-year-old actress from a small town near Chicago, makes Akeelah an appealing underdog. Palmer stands her ground with heavyweight adult co-stars Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett. She steals the screen, putting Fishburne, who plays her demanding spelling coach, in his snotty place.
Despite her youth, Palmer doesn’t make a false move. Previously seen in Madea’s Family Reunion, Barbershop 2 and many TV dramas, she’s the most natural of actresses.
The same can’t be said for Fishburne. While it’s true that Dr. Larabee is emotionally shut down, Fishburne squanders a key scene in which Larabee is finally free to reveal more than his shield against the world. Yet Fishburne’s gravity is often just what the bitter former UCLA professor-turned-spelling coach needs.
Playing Tanya, Akeelah’s distracted, stressed-out mom, Bassett is nearly the movie’s villain. As if Akeelah doesn’t have enough trouble already, Tanya is more hindrance than help for her bright child.
Tanya is a heavy-handed character, but it’s no surprise that a single working mother who’s caring for four children is stretched. Bassett also has the range to make Tanya real.
Atchison’s rich script lets moviegoers know and care about a girl named Akeelah. Palmer’s charismatic performance delivers on the script’s promise. And the moral of the story is a great one — let us not be afraid to be as smart and good as we truly are.
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