Akeelah and the Bee | Review

Feel-good family feature doesn’t dumb down its characters.

In a disturbing era where beauty pageants and sports are a more popular forms of self-validation for young children and their fanatical parents, it’s rewarding to see that self-gratification can still come from what is being taught between the four walls of a classroom and from inspiring adults. With Akeelah and the Bee we finally get a film where an African American protagonist’s sense of power comes neither from the possession of a weapon nor from the faith from above, instead writer/director Doug Atchison’s passion project shows that power is possible through knowledge, support and believing in ones’ self. Akeelah is the sort of family film that doesn’t succumb to the Disney-syndrome of over-dramatizing every single element – instead the hero of the tale comes across as a real person instead of a two-dimensional character.

It’s perhaps set in a cleaned-up version of a Los Angeles hood (gang-activity is kept to a G-rated maximum), but the class differences are very much kept intact and stereotypes do become part of the film’s mandate. The screenplay shows the struggles of single-family unit realities but the most interesting antagonist forces are Greek and Latin languages and the couple of nay-sayers who are threatened by knowledge. The presence of adults who don’t have all the rights answers is a comforting acknowledgement that regardless of age it is never too late to make a necessary change in one’s aptitude or attitude’s towards life.

Most of the film’s charm doesn’t come from the words-to-riches storyline but from the interactions between young actress Keke Palmer and her both younger and older peers. The film’s standout sequences come about each time the master (Fishburne) and the young protagonist equally share and take from the journey – they become a unified support system without Atchison feeling the need to over-explain how that system works. The film’s final shot – a collage of all those important in the young gifted child’s life is a surprisingly great way to end the drama and is certainly better than the non-gratifying spelling-bee ending that precedes it. By preference, a 12th place finish amongst the nation would have definitely been a more appreciated and long-lasting message worth discussing at the film’s end instead of the tacked on phony sense of euphoria.

Not as visually appealing as the child’s world tale of Bee Season nor as descriptive as the excellent documentary Spellbound, instead what we get here is a product that delivers on the human level, plus rare are the films where the protagonist is a black female who happens to be a child. When the most blatant product placement is the game of Scrabble and not some bad-tasting American beer then you know that you might find a special treat and though the recipe could have benefited from a little more emotional sympathy, Akeelah and the Bee should resonate with both the young and their accompanying parents and all the Bill Cosbys of the world. Hopefully the jump rope and spelling combo can become a national program for a country where the president probably has no clue as to the meaning of or the spelling of the word “insolent” and for those who like this film – a recommendation is the upcoming Half Nelson another example of the teacher student relationship that act as a support system.

Rating 3 stars