Akeelah and the Bee

 

Akeelah and the Bee 2006

• Director: Doug Atchison
• Based on the book: No.
• Cast: Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne, Angela Basset, Curtis Armstrong, J R Villarreal, Sean Michael Afable, Lee Thomas Young, Julito McCullum, Erica Hubbard, Eddie Steeples, Tzi Ma
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Laurence Fishburne – Man of Steel, Contagion, Bobby, Matrix x 3, Mystic River, Othello, What’s Love Got to Do with It, Boyz n the Hood, Class Action, The Color Purple, Rumble Fish
• Angela Bassett – Black Panther, Music of the Heart, Strange Days, What’s Love Got to Do with It, Malcolm X, Boyz n the Hood
• Curtis Armstrong – Ray, Third Rock from the Sun, Clan of the Cave Bear
• Lee Thomas Young – The Sarah Connors Chronicles
• Julito McCullum – The Wire
• Erica Hubbard – The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
• Tzi Ma – Fringe, Battle in Seattle, Robocop 2
• Why?  I liked it the first time.
• Seen: Once before. Now 26 March 2022. 

Eleven-year-old Akeelah ((Palmer) feels like an outsider and doesn’t much like school but she’s a whiz at spelling. Her teachers urge her to take part in the school spelling bee and when she wins that to go on to the regional, then state and finally national bees. After a hostile run-in with Josh (Fishburne), a language expert, they call a truce and he becomes her coach.

Spelling bees? Seriously? Can a film be more boring?

Guess what. It’s exciting. Akeelah doesn’t just face words like synecdoche and argillaceous but also ridicule from classmates, anger from her overworked harsh widowed mother, a nasty and oppressed fellow speller, and pressure from all sides.

It’s not because I’m a language nerd myself (though not a spelling whiz) but because it’s just impossible not to love Akeelah. Yes, it’s a bit sugary in its feel-goodness but young Palmer is outstanding and everyone else is good too. 

4 ½ * of 5