Akeelah and the Bee Review
by samseescinema (sammeriam AT comcast DOT net)April 26th, 2006
Akeelah and the Bee
reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 2 out of 4
Director: Doug Atchison
Cast: Angela Bassett, Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne Screenplay: Doug Atchison
MPAA Classification: PG (some language)
With the feel-good inspirational genre, there's a Point A and a Point B. As the audience, we can foresee each of these destinations and, in most cases, every step that's to be taken in between. As a rule of mine, Formula is successfully executed when a film can spice up the ride we're forced to take to arrive at the inevitable Point B. Stick It, for instance, was aware of its formula and managed to have fun with its gaudy, unrealistic identity along its silly way. This made for a decently fun ride. Akeelah and the Bee, however, refuses its mainstream origins, insisting that somewhere hidden within its bag of tricks there lies staunch originality. But the film is stubborn and dull, tumbling into each pitfall the genre sets up for it. Maybe somebody has to spell it out for Akeelah and the Bee. B-L-A-N-D. Bland.
It seems that ever since the Sundance hit Spellbound cracked the now-widening documentary audience, studios have been stumbling over themselves to tap the hushed solemnity of that nationwide tradition, the Spelling Bee. Last year sported the bizarrely engaging Bee Season, also released by an independent distributor. Now we have Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), a shy and intelligent 11 year-old who's afraid of admitting she's got brains. Her school, Crenshaw Junior High, is pressed for money and asks Akeelah, to display her natural talent for spelling in the School Bee. Reluctant to attract the bullies and ostracize herself from the rest of the school, she grudgingly agrees and wins the competition. It's an upward battle from there, however, as Akeelah studies and spells her way to the Scripps National Bee in Washington D.C. with the training of Dr. Joshua Larabee (Laurence Fishburne).
Keke Palmer takes the role of Akeelah and gives it a fortunate reality: shyness. Timidity is no new invention for little actors, but Ms. Palmer has a way of exuding it to a realistic effect. Her performance doesn't measure up to the prodigious acting bones little miss Flora Cross doled out in Bee Season, but Keke Palmer is certainly convincing. As Dr. Larabee, Laurence Fishburne puts on his finest Morpheus voice and Zen-talks Akeelah to the championship. I closed my eyes for a second during one his monologues and imagined that instead of South Los Angeles, Akeelah's tale took place in Zion, the last remaining sanctuary for humanity from The Matrix. It worked.
Akeelah and the Bee isn't especially poor, granted, but it doesn't live up to its own expectations. The film wants to be about community enduring poverty and family outlasting tragedy. And in some respects, Akeelah and the Bee achieves this. One perk is that every kid doesn't sport hip designer clothing from the costume designer's wardrobe. They also aren't all stand-up comedians with wit like Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. And even more impressive, Keke Palmer's only thirteen in real life. She's not a twenty-three playing young. All this is refreshing stuff. And coupled with the straightforward, no-tricks cinematography, Akeelah's world is pretty believable.
But beneath this great veneer of stark reality lies a story riddled with wheezing clichés. Ten minutes into the picture, we know the destiny of each of its characters: the inattentive mother, the has-been coach, the no-good son, the rivalry turned friend, the best friend abandoned by Akeelah's newfound popularity, blah, blah, blah. This wouldn't be a problem if Doug Atchison's writing could distract us from the formula with some bouts of strong character development or, in Stick It's case, kaleidoscope acid-trip dreamscapes. But Akeelah and her characters progress in slow, predictable fashion, refusing to sidestep any of the usual potholes the genre stages, and settling for a film that's content with simply going through the motions. B-L-A-N-D.
-www.samseescinema.com
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