It's inevitable that Akeelah and the Bee will be compared to 2001's stunning documentary Spellbound. It was really hard for me to disregard that movie while watching Akeelah. The most notable similarity is the central character, whose story resembles that of Spellbound’s Ashley. Unfortunately, there is no scene in Akeelah that comes close to matching the suspense of Ashley trying to spell lycanthrope. Despite that, this is still an entertaining movie, even with some severe flaws in the screenplay.

Akeelah (Keke Palmer)is a bright, but unmotivated inner city student with an uncanny ability at spelling complex words. She is urged by her school principal to enter the school spelling bee. The simplistic words at the school bee are very easy for her and she wins the competition without much effort. This impresses an educator named Dr. Larrabee (Laurence Fishburne), a former department chair at UCLA who has turned into something of a recluse.

Larrabee instantly notices Akeelah’s potential and (after some convincing) starts to train her so she can get to the national spelling bee. Along the way, Akeelah makes friends with other bee contestants that attend a rich private school. Javier (J.R. Villareal) is an ingratiating kid who begins to help Akeelah even as they compete against each other. Eventually a sweet little romance develops between the two of them. Sean (Dylan Chiu) is the brusque antagonist, who constantly insults Akeelah’s ability. He has finished second in the Spelling Bee for the last four years, and his strict father isn’t about to accept that again.

The central part of the movie deals with the training sessions between Akeelah and Larrabee. The movie is very good at showing us the intricacy of the studying sessions. It's more than just memorizing a long list of words. Larrabee teaches Akeelah about word origins, smaller words that form bigger ones, and how to come up with tricks that help with concentration. As they continue to train together, their relationship develops and they learn a lot about each other’s past, both filled with sadness. These scenes are beautiful to watch and that is due to the brilliant performances by the two actors. Laurence Fishburne is of course one of the greatest actors in Hollywood, and he glides effortlessly into the role of Larrabee. What’s amazing is how Keke Palmer matches him every step of the way. Her natural, confident performance is an incredible achievement for someone her age and I expect big things from her in the future.

I wish I had nothing negative to say about this film, but unfortunately I have many issues with the screenplay. Writer-director Doug Atchison has done a good job fashioning a classic underdog story, and created some very memorable characters for us to root for. However, his screenplay needed several rewrites. There is a terrible scene early in the film where one of the kid’s mothers is caught helping her son spell a word. The scene unfolds in a completely unconvincing way, particularly the idiotic way it portrays the mother, and the only reasoning behind it is to trick the audience. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it would be nice for the scene to make sense.

Other problems include the one-dimensional characters written for Akeelah's family. As Akeelah’s mom, poor Angela Bassett is stuck in a role that has her only play extremes. She's either the strict single mother (in the beginning) or the caring nurturer (in the end). By writing the character this way, they've completely robbed themselves of any advantage they got by casting her in the first place. Bassett does what she can with it, but based on her prior work, she could have done so much more. Akeelah has two brothers, one of which is a constant screw up, the other who joined the military and is very responsible. These characterizations are hopelessly simplistic.

Akeelah and the Bee is an uplifting movie that shows how hard work and perseverance can lead to success. The ending is somewhat predictable and hokey, but it works because of Palmer’s terrific performance and the able support she received. Besides Fishburne, there was also a strong performance from J.R. Villareal as Akeelah's friend and romantic interest. He has one of the film's comic highlights, when he tries to stall the judges so Akeelah can make it back in time for her turn.

I did have a problem with Akeelah's final monologue, though. Throughout the movie, we’ve seen all sorts of people helping out Akeelah, including Larrabee, Javier, and the school principal. Akeelah states that it’s the effort of the people in her neighborhood that helped her achieve her accomplishments. I don’t mind the sentiment, but it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the movie. And paying tribute to the drug dealer seems extremely problematic. Not all drug dealers are just misunderstood poets.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD