Review of Spellbound (2002) by Shawne ~ — 27 Aug 2004

Who'd have thought that a documentary about eight kids competing for the American National Spelling Bee would be so gripping? The movie draws quick, surprisingly cutting pictures of each of these children and their family circumstances. Some kids want to prove something, others just want to win, and you get the feeling that one of them has been heaped haphazardly into a mould built out of his parents' wishes (seriously, watch out for Neil and his story--it's so disturbing how his father is prepping him to get him into tip-top shape for this competition; I'm convinced Neil was well and truly flogged when they got home for disgracing the family name)... You really do get involved with each of these eight kids, and I sure winced mightily when that chiming bell went off, indicating that they'd*gasp* spelt something wrong!

It's a shame that the documentary fails only in that it can neither completely justify nor explain the drive of these kids in winning big in such a mechanical competition. Yes, I am awed by the raw intelligence displayed by several of these children. But I'm just not at all convinced about the worth of working oneself into complete dejection and pessimism (witness pint-sized manic-depressive April), so I, at least, came away feeling somewhat cheated for getting quite so involved with these kids. It's not quite the riotous success I was expecting from all the reviews I've read. But still, these aren't reasons not to catch this documentary if you have the chance. It's still worth the watch, just so you can take pride in yourself when you realise that you can actually spell some of these words (a lot less often than you'd hope, but blame it on all that scientific mambo-jambo...)!