Spellbound Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)June 11th, 2003
"Spellbound"
Each and every year, across the U.S., 9,000,000 kids compete for the 249 slots available at the National Spelling Bee held every year in Washington, DC. Documentary maker Jeff Blitz follows eight middle-schoolers on this road as they traverse the pitfalls and dangers of spelling competitions in quest of fame and $10,000 in "Spellbound."
Helmer Blitz does a by-the-numbers job in his Rocky-esque documentary as he follows his eight subjects, intellectual athletes from all walks of life whose only goal is to be America's best speller. It is a diligent work depicting the equally diligent efforts of about-12-year olds who are called upon to spell, under the pressure of the nation's gaze, the likes of apocope, hellebore, repititeur and zwieback.
In straightforward fashion Blitz introduces the principles in this saga of spelling perfection. Angela is the daughter of a Mexican cattleman who, after 25 years living in Texas, does not speak English. His daughter, despite this, has formed her own training regimen and is a savant at spelling. Nupur, from Tampa FLA of Indian parents, is a return contestant with another chance at spelling fame. Emily, from affluent New Haven CT, has a diverse set of interests from riding to singing to spelling. Ted is a genius loner in small town Rolla MO for whom the national bee is a chance to mingle with other kids like him.
Ashley is from inner city DC whose study technique is to read the entire dictionary from cover to cover. Neil, harking from Indian parents living in San Clemente CA, is imbued with the American work ethic of "work hard and you will succeed." April, from working-class Ambler PA, likes roller coasters and coffee and studies 8-9 hours a day - during summer vacation! Harry, a motor mouthed, likable geek from Glen Rock NJ, is the most theatrical of all the contestants.
After the intros of all the contestants, their methods, earlier victories, and interviews with family members, teachers and friends, the action shifts to the drama of the National Spelling Bee. 249 kids enter the arena where Alex Cameron, the seminal announcer for the NSB, provides the words to be spelled as well as the answers to the contestants' four important questions: Can you repeat the word? Can I have a definition? Could I have a language of origin? Can you use it in a sentence?
The kids are an animate collection of characters and are an interesting lot of kids. Expressive Harry Altman steals the show whenever he is given a chance to mug for his audience and the camera. The facial gymnastics that he, of Jewish origins, goes through as he tries to figure out the spelling of a simple, but solely Catholic, word are some of the film's best moments.
"Spellbound" is unembellished, textbook documentary filmmaking that chronicles the lives of eight typical kids vying for honors in the NSB and who happen to know how to spell "logorrhea." (Which means, FYI, "excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness," according to Webster.) I give it a B.
For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
