Akeelah and the Bee

[Chris D]

This is a story of a young black girl from an inner city in California, gifted in spelling. She's low on motivation and confidence, but is talked into competing in her school's spelling bee. There, she is noticed by Lawrence Fishburne's character, who mentors and trains her for the National Spelling Bee.

Along the way, we get a nice human story about the characters. One of the nice things is, the movie manages to avoid the deepest cliches of an inner city minority youth story. This is not a remake of "Stand and Deliver", or "Dangerous Minds".

Nicely done, and enjoyable for the whole family. Not a perfect, powerful film, but very much recommended for all. :45: out of :5:

[John Holmes]

This has been on DVD for some time now. :W However, you are correct none-the-less. This is an excellent film! One that I'm sure got passed over by most for the same reasons you posted, stereotyping portrayals of the inner city.

[Chris D]

Yes, I remember when it first was released in the theaters. Roger Ebert made it his "pick of the week", with many glowing reviews.

[Glen B]

I agree this is an excellent film. I have seen it a couple of times, the first time by myself then with the wife. If there is one thing I must criticize its the portrayal of Angela Bassett's character. You need an AS or BS degree to be a nurse. How can a parent who (presumably) has a college education be initially so insensitive and not recognize the significance of their child being chosen to compete in a national spelling bee ?

[Chris D]

Oh, whoops... I just realized why you guys were reminding me this has been out for a while... I meant to put this in the DVD section. Sorry!