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DVD
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Akeelah and the Bee
E-x-h-i-l-i-r-a-t-o-r-y-; g-l-a-d-d-e-n-i-n-g; s-a-l-u-b-r-i-o-u-s. Spell it any way you want, this one’s a keeper.
Monday, August 28, 2006 at 1:30 PM
By Anderson Jones
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Lionsgate Films
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A-k-e-e-l-a-h
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The screening was at 10:00 a.m. on a Friday morning.
I don't do mornings. So I decided instead to catch Akeelah and the Bee, new this week on DVD, that evening. But my best friend and movie partner guilted me into getting out of bed and making my way to Santa Monica, because I had made a promise. Neither one of us knew why we needed to see this film, but I’m glad I did.
Akeelah and the Bee is perhaps one of the most refreshing and surprising movies in some time. It also brings together Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett, who haven't shared the same frame of film since making What's Love Got to Do with It. Both are in decidedly supporting roles.
Hands down, the star of Akeelah is Akeelah, Keke Palmer (Madea's Family Reunion), who was just 11-years old when she filmed the movie for writer-director Doug Hutchinson, almost a first-timer himself. She carries his uplifting, deeply affecting movie and they both share this remarkable, career-defining moment.
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Lionsgate Films
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D-o-c-t-o-r L-a-r-a-b-e-e
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The real testament to Palmer's acting prowess may be that my best friend still doesn't believe the girl is just 12-years-old now. She's convinced she's at least four or five years older. That's some achievement.
Akeelah is a brilliant child, but she's stuck. Not unlike many bright, young African-American children in South Central Los Angeles (or any urban center), she has surpassed her peers academically and now finds herself bored in the classroom waiting for.… what? She can't even wrap her head around the possibilities.
But she can tell no one - not even her supportive best friend. Classmates tease her when she gets A’s, and she's beginning to think school is for the birds. To pass the time between finishing up simple homework assignments and dinner with her family, led by her widowed working mother (Bassett), she plays Scrabble in her head with her murdered father.
Fortunately for Akeelah, her teacher has noticed her intellectual spark and suggests she enter the school-wide spelling bee. With some nudging she does, and wins, without breaking a sweat and tapping her leg all the way. She astonishes not only her principal but a professor from a local college, who senses Akeelah may have some potential.
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Lionsgate Films
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T-a-n-y-a A-n-d-e-r-s-o-n
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And so her long journey to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. begins. Fishburne, uncharacteristically, underplays Dr. Larabee, Akeelah's mentor and coach. He's tough and tender, naturally, and a tad more interesting than the clichéd mentors of filmdom (see Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting, the worst example of the species). He pushes his charge through some district-wide and statewide contests until she starts to believe that maybe, just maybe, the only person who can stand in Akeelah's way is Akeelah. It's a good lesson for us all.
However, the movie delicately underscores that it won't be easy for a little black girl to compete against white and privileged kids who have been studying the dictionary seemingly since preschool. Akeelah has to get herself from South Central to the Valley - a two-hour trip each way by bus - and she needs partners. While her biggest fan may be a kid from a better part of town who's been to the big Bee, she has to get her mom on her side. And when her neighborhood learns of her grand ambitions, even the local drug dealer runs through her flash cards of some 5,000 key words.
Yes, Akeelah makes it to the big show. And Hutchinson increases the drama and suspense to agonizing levels, which makes the conclusion ring even truer. Akeelah proves that she's not only a great - make that, extraordinary - speller (perhaps she even has a photographic memory), she's also an exceptional person.
Akeelah and the Bee earns its tears. And its cheers. You know, I'm not a particular fan of children or kids movies, but this movie, like the best family films, raises the bar to celebrate our truest selves. So, I love what Laurence Fishburne said while promoting this film that he also produced: "As long as there are kids, there should be movies that focus on them."
Make sure the kids in your lives don't miss it.
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