Review of Akeelah and the Bee (2006) by Jeff B — 12 Jul 2010

How do you spell awesome? A-K-E-E-L...just kidding! I wouldn't actually start a review with something that cheesy, although HSD knows critics have before me. And they'd be right: Akeelah and the Bee is awesome. It's a smart, touching movie about cliches that is never actually cliche. Instead, this movie takes old platitudes and gives them new tricks...or new signifiers, as it turns out.

Every single performance in this movie is perfect. I love Keke Palmer as Akeelah, a girl who's obviously intelligence but lacks direction and has ever since her father died. She flounders in a curriculum that bores her, in a neighbourhood that intimidates her, in a family that doesn't seem to appreciate her, with spelling as her only real outlet. Palmer isn't overacting or underacting. Her performance hits the right chord every single time. She grounds the film, centers it, and turns Akeelah from a character on the page into a thinking, breathing person on the screen. Equally compelling are Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Laraby, Akeelah's coach, and Angela Bassett, Akeelah's mother, but what can I possibly say about either Fishburne or Bassett that hasn't been said before?

The fact that there's spelling in this movie only sweetens the deal for me. At heart, I'm a geek, but I'm also a film fan, and Akeelah and the Bee satisfies both those interests.