Akeelah and the Bee

Here's a question I'd like to set out to all parents - What movie did you let your children see last weekend? It was most likely R.V. Or perhaps you let them watch Ice Age: The Meltdown for the second or third time. I ask this question because so many of you apparently did not take them to see Akeelah and the Bee if last weekend's box office totals are to be trusted. Why you would choose to ignore this wonderful and downright uplifting family film, I have no idea. Yes, it doesn't have the star power of Robin Williams, nor the marketing campaign of the current CGI cartoon of the month. What it does have is a wonderful story that just about anyone can appreciate, and a surprisingly intelligent and heartfelt screenplay by writer-director Doug Atchison. I fear that this film's time at your local cinema may be brief, so I highly advise one and all (even those without children) to make the time to see this great little movie.

11-year-old Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) is a smart young girl trapped in a failing middle school located in the poor area of Los Angeles. When she was younger, she seemed destined for great things, and even skipped ahead a grade. But because she is surrounded by violence, gangs, and an unstable family life at home, she is afraid of what others would think of her if she displayed her intelligence openly, and prefers to keep her gifts and her love of learning to herself. Akeelah's continuous perfect scores on spelling tests catches the attention of the school's principal (Curtis Armstrong), and he sees an opportunity to give the school some positive publicity by entering her in the local Spelling Bee. Akeelah is reluctant, but eventually goes along with the plan, easily winning the competition and earning her chance to go to the State Bee, and perhaps even the National. She is soon paired with a spelling tutor who will help guide her down the long road ahead - a former college professor with a wide variety of personal demons in his past (Laurence Fishburne). Akeelah must now not only deal with the pressures of the Bee and representing her school, but also the continuous pressures at home, including an overworked mother (Angela Bassett) who fails to see the potential in her own daughter's dreams.

The underdog story told within Akeelah and the Bee has been told many times before, but rarely has it been told this well. I don't think I'm giving away anything by revealing that the spelling tutor's past will catch up with him, Akeelah will learn to believe in herself and embrace her own abilities, and that the climax will bring everything together at the big competition. It's a formula that dates all the way back to the Rocky films, and probably even further back than that. However, the screenplay by Atchison is not just content to simply throw out the expected plot elements. It goes much deeper than that, developing real and honest characters that make even the most tired cliches seem almost new again, and dialogue that is often natural sounding and never forced. This isn't one of those movies where the kids are smarter than the adults, and throw out continuous one liners that only a highly paid Hollywood writer could dream up. The kids are allowed to act like real children. Their joy, their insecurities, their hopes - It's all real and it's all up there on the screen. When the kids do bring forth laughs from the audience, it's not because of some clever line of dialogue, or because of juvenile bathroom humor. They generate laughs by being real children, and acting like they would in such a situation. This movie contains one of the more accurate portrayals of childhood I've seen in a wide release movie in quite some time.

There is an overall sense of honesty in Akeelah that rings true almost throughout. From its characters to its dialogue, the film always strives to aim higher than what we'd expect in the genre. The character of Akeelah herself may follow some of the standard rules of child heroines in these kind of films (must have one dead parent, must have a hard time believing in themself, etc.), but she is lifted above the norm thanks to the personality the screenplay gives her, and the wonderful performance by young Keke Palmer makes her come alive even more. She is someone easy to root for, flawed in her own way, and immediately likeable. Even the supporting characters, like the kids that she befriends in the Spelling Bee circuit, are more true than what we would expect, including a wonderful performance by a young actor named J.R. Villarreal as Akeelah's best friend in the competition. Not only does Mr. Villarreal have great comic timing, but he's also a generally talented child actor all around, and one I would like to see more of. And even if the script's plot covers some well worn territory, it still finds some ways to surprise us, especially during its climax. Most of all, I enjoyed how Akeelah's hometown life and surroundings were portrayed. Even if they have been softened up somewhat in order to keep a PG-rating, the script does not shy away from the hardships of Akeelah's life. Not just the hardships, but also the joys of her local community have been correctly displayed here.

Aside from the previously mentioned performances of Keke Palmer and J.R. Villarreal, the film is graced all around by a number of strong performances from just about its entire cast. Laurence Fishburne may be playing the typical "tutor with a past" role, but he has good chemistry with Palmer during their scenes together, and a commanding presence that immediately draws the audience's attention to him. Angela Bassett comes off a bit one note at first as the mother who cannot understand her daughter's dreams, because she's too wrapped up in her own problems, but she is still able to come across as likeable and honest when her character is given more dimension during the later half of the film. The only character who does seem to falter (and this is partially due to one of the few faults I found with the screenplay) is that Akeelah's troubled older brother is not given much to do, nor does he serve much purpose in the film. He is supposed to be the source of a lot of the mother's agony, and doesn't seem to care for Akeelah or anything else for that matter for most of the film. His personality suddenly and quite abruptly changes with a single scene, and he is suddenly fully supportive and cheering her on, the entire story arc built around his problems being dropped completely. It's a minor gripe to be sure, but given how truthful everything else about this movie is, the subplot seemed so tidy and perfect as to be out of place.

If anything, Akeelah and the Bee proves that a movie can rise above formulaic plotting and storytelling with smart dialogue, characters we can cheer for and identify with, and most of all, treating its own subject with integrity. Here is a family movie that doesn't condescend and doesn't overly manipulate our emotions. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a non-animated family film this much, and if you give this movie a chance, neither I think will you. Don't let this one slip by, even if you have to wait for the DVD. Above all, this movie should be required viewing for producers who greenlight slop like The Shaggy Dog, if just to show them how to do a quality family film.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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