Akeelah and the Bee

Akeelah and the Bee (2006) is a film whose parts are greater that their sum. It's a predictable film that relies on effective acting and a winning plot for its success. It's about an African American girl in the Los Angeles projects who is mired in unpleasant circumstances and knows it. Her father is dead; her mother is distant; her older brother runs with a gang. She's pretty much ignored and on her own. Her solace is her passion for spelling. When her teachers discover her talent, they begin to think she might do well in the spelling bee. And of course she does do well, moving from her school competition to the regional and state and national competitions.

Akeelah is an unlikely competitor. She's at first afraid her friends will make fun of her. Her mother isn't supportive, and her older brother doesn't take her seriously. Her principal talks a college English professor (Lawrence Fishburne) on sabbatical into coaching Akeelah. He agrees, after much grumbling. He has his own issues, dark secrets, to worry about.

Everyone in this film has issues. Akeelah's mother (Angela Bassett) dropped out of college because she felt insecure and unworthy. Akeelah's spelling coach still grieves over the death of daughter and the failure of his marriage. Her principal struggles with inadequate funding for his school—he hopes Akeelah will bring attention and more support. Everyone in Akeelah's neighborhood comes to see Akeelah and her prospects in the spelling bee as a symbol of hope and success and escape. Akeelah herself, played by Keke Palmer, gives this film life and passion and raises it above and beyond itself as a basic feel-good film.

This is also a film about character. At first Akeelah spells simply because she enjoys doing it. She enjoys spelling so much that she lets her other classes slide. It's a means of self-gratification in an environment that give s her little to be happy about. Later, spelling becomes a source of pride and accomplishment. Finally it becomes an achievement she is willing to forfeit so that her main competitor, an Asian boy whose tyrant-father continually berates him for coming in second, can win. But this is not exactly the outcome in the film.

Akeelah seems heavily influenced by a documentary entitled Spellbound (2002), about eight teenagers competing in the national spelling tournament. Several individuals in that film resemble characters in Akeelah and the Bee, including a black girl as well as competitors bullied and pushed around by their parents.

There are elements of schmaltz and the unlikely in this film. How many teenagers stuck in the projects have a chance of escape by learning to spell long words no one uses? Yet the film works. It's inspiring and stirring. We cheer along with Akeelah's neighborhood when she wins her victories. Everyone's redeemed, in a sense. Everyone transfigured.

Perhaps it's not in the spirit of the film to ask what follows Akeelah's final victory. Will her success allow her to escape from the projects. Will it give self-confidence to her mother and a better future for her brother? Maybe. But the film's message that hard work and determination and a dusting of luck can pay off is worth consideration.