‘Akeelah’ spells successful family film
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Apr 27, 2006 at 11:44pm
Akeelah and the Bee is a life-affirming (and I hate to use that cliched term, but it’s true), positive and inspiration drama the underscores the importance of education in bettering yourself. Heck, it even has the audacity to imply that most people are good deep down—and does all this without toppling into a pit of sugary sentimentality.
Akeelah and the Bee is the story of Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), a precocious 11-year old girl from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Despite the objections of her well-meaning mother (Angela Bassett), Akeelah enters various spelling contest, for which she is tutored by the no-nonsense Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne), her principal Mr. Welch (Curtis Armstrong) and the proud residents of her neighborhood. Akeelah’s aptitude earns her an opportunity to compete for a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and unite her neighborhood who witness the courage and inspiration of the young girl.
It sounds like a maudlin and boring premise for a film—after all, how exciting can it be to watch spelling bees?—but writer-director Doug Atchison is clever enough to ground the film with some down-to-earth characters. He also brings out the inherent drama of mental competition—and watching those kids spell is much more entertaining than watching golf on TV.
Palmer is totally believable in the title role as the prodigy who believes in the power of words and of learning. Bassett (one of cinema’s under-appreciated treasures) and Fishburne are sturdy and solid in the film reunites them for the first time since What’s Love Got to do With it?. The rest of the cast are also top notch.
Akeelah misfires on a few points. Many of the dads in the film and Akeelah’s Asian American competitor border on stereotypes. But despite a couple of stumbles, Akeelah is a moving, hopeful film that’s fit for the whole family.
Can you spell M-U-S-T S-E-E?
Akeelah and the Bee is rated PG for some language. Running time: 112 minutes. Macsimum rating: 7 out of 10. You can check out all the films’ trailers on the QuickTime movie trailer site.
—Ramona Bissudo
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
joshua simpson Says:
contest
Posted on May 01, 2006