Spellbound | Review

Mini geniuses are the heroes of funny and insightful documentary.

When I muff up on the spelling of a word I have a good old program from Microsoft to auto-correct my mistakes, when the subjects of this Oscar-nominated documentary screw-up on the spelling of a Latin word for an exotic flower from the Amazon with fourteen syllables they get sent packing their bags with a one-way ticket back home.

From militant learning techniques to just plain old use of a dictionary, 8 kids who are striving to Bee-Happy or to please one’s parents answer my burning question of how and why a dictionary get used up. Sometimes referred to as ‘nerds’ these interesting individuals who find kind of cruel fun with the English language come from different cultural backgrounds, milieus and corners of the nation whose pastime is eating hot-dogs and watching baseball. Spellbound is a simplified documentary that sheds light into the wacko competitive spirit of a piece of Americana the national spelling bee which reminded me of the same kind of red, white and blue world of beauty pageants for 3 three-olds.

The mockumentary Best in Show demonstrated ridiculousness of these sorts of competitions, director Jefferey Blitz takes the same approach, looking for the humor in the stories and shows the positives and negatives that come with eager parents and supportive families. With plenty of facial contortions, with are witness to a bunch of special kids with different degrees of pressure-one kid has the added bonus of feeding five thousand hungry mouths in India if he succeeds. Perhaps the most frightful part of the documentary are the glimpses of parents and adult peers who sometimes aspire for something a little too big for their children giving us a bird’s eye view of the new levels of educating their offspring.

Overall, the structure is rather easy and becomes a convenient comment on America, but it is delightful and entertaining little number that occasionally looks down on its subjects but makes them into the stars of the dictionary, their communities and the screen. Spellbound is a light-hearted affair that has better suspense than the million dollar question on that stupid show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”.

Rating 3 stars