"Palmer soars, carrying writer/director Doug Atchison's film on new 'tween wings."
-- Carrie Rickey, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

"Effectively anchoring the picture is Keke Palmer's lovely lead performance as Akeelah Anderson."
-- Michael Rechtshaffen, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"Everybody has their moment."
-- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER

"Wonder no more about the validity of spelling bees. In this one, a child brings new life to the people surrounding her."
-- Harvey S. Karten, COMPUSERVE

The world of competitive spelling bees has always been a hard subject to dramatize. It is undoubtably a fascinating subject to behold, one which requires large amounts of both intelligence and strategy. But the fact of the matter is that audiences aren't drawn to them. Most would rather venture out to see an inspirational football drama rather than watch children spell for two hours. This is why the subject has been so rarely covered in film. Two recent examples, the documentary Spellbound and the drama Bee Season, have tried to connect with the average viewer - both recieving mediocre box office returns. Hopefully this trend will cease with the release of Akeelah And The Bee, written and directed by newcomer Doug Atchison. This tale of a young girl winning against all odds is one of the year's biggest gems - a heartfelt and moving film about the champion in us all.

The story follows young Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), a shy 11-year old seventh grader who people think of as undeniably average. Her mother Tanya (Angela Bassett) barely notices she is there, her classmates dislike her and her teachers find her incredibly unambitious. She is only able to find solace with her caring older brother Devon (Lee Thompson Young) and best friend Georgia (Sahara Garey). But everything changes one fateful day when Akeelah unexpectedly wins her school's spelling bee. Located in a rough neighborhood in South Los Angeles, her principal (Curtis Armstrong) sees this as an opportunity for some positive publicity for the struggling school. Because of this, he enlists the help of famed teacher Dr. Joshua Larabee (Laurence Fishburne) to help Akeelah with her studies.

At first Akeelah is stubborn, lacking the motivation to work hard enough to move to the next level. But as the months pass, her bond with Larabee grows along with her ambition. As she moves through the regionals and then the state bee - she soon finds herself heading to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national spelling bee. With her entire neighborhood behind her, Akeelah must decide if she has what it takes to win.

This film has recieved much advanced publicity for some of its credentials. It is the first film to be co-distributed by Starbucks Entertainment, a new division of the famed coffeehouse. It is also well-known because Atchison recieved the presitigious Nicholl Fellowship to put this film in production. This award, given by the AMPAS, is presented to new screenwriters who display much promise. Upon seeing the film, it is evident why Atchison recieved this award. Akeelah And The Bee greatly benefits from the excellent script, which takes careful time to develop the characters - allowing you to become very attached to them by the end of the film. It also shows the true intensity of the actual competition, including a nail-biting final act as intense as any sports film. Atchison also succeeds in terms of direction, using many interesting shots throughout the running time. The film moves at a fast pace but never feels rushed - keeping the audience completely engrossed in the story.

The cast on display here is made up of talented veterans and promising new talent. Laurence Fishburne is great as Larabee, delivering one of his finest performances to date. His character has many layers to his persona, first appearing aloof and haughty but later revealing himself as a caring and sympathetic man with a dark past. Fishburne dives into this role and makes the character completely believable. Angela Bassett is also strong here as Tanya, and tackles each scene with charisma and strength. But the real heart and soul of the picture, and the reason that it is such a success, is Keke Palmer's breakout performance. The multi-layered performance is sure to be one of the year's best - and it is easily the strongest performance by a child actor since Haley Joel Osment's famed turn in The Sixth Sense. She fills the role with lots of energy, but also displays strong dramatic chops and excels in her dramatic scenes - creating a lovable and completely adorable character. Anyone who doesn't fall in love with Palmer as Akeelah must have a heart of stone.

Overall, this is easily the best family film of the year so far and one of the strongest inspiratational tales in years. While it may have some unavoidable cliches, Akeelah And The Bee succeeds due to a strong script and excellent performances, especially from standout Keke Palmer. There's only one word that comes to mind when summing up this film as a whole: G-R-E-A-T!

8/10 (A-)

I hope everyone makes an effort to check this out next weekend. It was such a great film and I even teared up during some scenes, which almost never happens for me.

I'm going to see with my boyfriend next weekend, it got glowing reviews on Ebert and Roeper.

B

Incredibly Hollywood, and a bit on the cheesy side, but still entertaining and uplifting with some great performances.

Haha. I compared it to the nostalgia of riding an old wooden roller coaster, and for the same reasons you mentioned. I gave it a B as well.

The strong part of this film is the acting, Bassett and Fishborne add layers to their characters that don't seem to exist on paper and the child actors are all very interesting. Normally I dislike these kind of films, but the actors manage to seel at the points when I normally want to choke on the saccarhin be fed by the mouthful. The ending was very Hollywood, but I that I can get around because along the way I think film had depth were I did not expect it to.

Also, did you people see Angela Bassett's arms, my god, she could tear a person head off. If I saw her in a dark alley I'd be scared, women is BUILT and at the same time sexy, I adore her.

I'm a sucker for inspirational stories like Akeelah and the Bee, and though overall it worked it's magic on me - I just couldn't get over the crazily unrealistic character development lines. Every single character went from super pessimistic ultra villains to over-the-top mega supporters. Yow! They could have told this story just as inspirationally withoput resorting to this sort of secondary character defamation/deformation. For example, the school bullies went from physical abuse to cheerleaders, the South Central gang leader promised to read his grade five poem (a promise which I must report he didn't keep), and worse her mother wasn't the least supportive at the beginning - of all the characters, she would have benefitted from coming from a less extreme starting point.

But, despite this major flaw of lazy writing, the darn movie still chugs on through to it's obviously inspirational conclusion, and had me by the heart strings.

3 out of 5.

I love these kind of movies. You know what you're going to get, but the process of getting there is great While the ending was very cheesy, it was very well executed and the cheese was served at good times. Laurence Fishbourne (sp?) still reminds me of morpheus though

A-

Keke Palmer is pretty excellent, she smacks of the innocent acting that really doesn't ring too false compared to the more over the top performances from almost every other character.

There's a deeper movie here about super intelligent kids who are underchallenged in underfunded schools, the expectations of parents and adults on kids, the passing of culture from the older generation to the next, even racism (that works both ways), etc. and the movie definately touches on all of those subjects, but never enough to make the audience feel bad.

The whole "spell the pain away" message that Akeelah gives to Lawrence F. made me laugh in an unintentional way.

Daaaaaaaaaamn, this has got to be the most heartwarming film I've seen in a long, long time. I don't remember smiling so much during a film.

Despite the the sometimes cheesy acting and cheesy scenes, the film has a huge heart and even touches on serious issues, such as the pressure that parents put on their kids, underprivileged kids who don't always get the resources to explore their talent, and the film explores the exertion of pressure in general with these big spelling bees (I've watched the actual Scripps Spelling Bee on television, and all the children look robotic and morbid).

Anyhow, there is some bad, but a lot of heartwarming good in this film, and I quite enjoyed myself.

B

Yeah, the cheese is laid on REALLY thick, but it is enjoyable.

I think a more adult film could've tackled the subject more effectively, but I suppose that's a different field entirely (e.g., Half Nelson, which I haven't seen but know is a much rougher study on inner city kids).

I do love that "our greatest fear..." quote, though

B-

B+

Very inspirational and heartwarming flick, biggest issue is that it is verrry predictable. My dad right before the end showdown said

[spoil]"I bet she loses on purpose... or wait, I bet they'll tie." Ehehe.

They didn't exactly help their case in that area either, did they have to mention like 5 times that "There are only 25 championship words! If they get through them all, they'll be co-champions! Only 12 words left to be co-champions!", heh.

[/spoil]

Also not a big fan of the cinematography, the scenes talking to her father was a bit much.

Very enjoyable movie though, it's hard not to like it.

A very heartwarming and enjoyable film.

A-

What everyone said. I really was surprised, i thought it was going to be boring.

B+

Really wonderful movie with fantastic performance. A

This was a really sweet, warm movie that I enjoyed immensely. I thought its protrayal of the kids was spot-on, lacking in Hollywood bullshit. I'd love to see Keke Palmer some more. She's wonderful.

Unfortunately, there was the Laurence Fishburne character. And he was Hollywood bullshit. But, still, this is way better than one could reasonably expect.

8/10 - > B

Just saw it a few days ago for the first time. I liked the movie a lot. Nice performances all around. It would've been better if Akeelah lost it in the end, though. Or if they both mispelled at the same time thus making them co-champions again. There was a lack of excitement in the end. But nevertheless a good movie...

I guess I never posted in this thread. Hmm.

Well, I saw it on DVD probably about a year ago. It was really kind of a delight. Another one of these movies that just leaves you with a pure feeling of elation when it's over.