Hey, all. Capone checking back in with you on a film I haven't seen much (if any) coverage on on AICN.

Instead people have wasted their fingers typing about the piece of shit known as RV, a film I've seen and refuse to discuss at length. My colleagues have done a fine job warning you. I'm sure that in history there has been a worse film made, but I'm drawing a blank trying to think of one. If you want something to take the kiddies to (or even grown folks; there's plenty here for both), try Akeelah and the Bee. Read on...

Now here's a novel idea: a feel-good movie that actually made me feel really good. I'm not sure what it is about films that feature children spelling words most adults will never use in the course of their entire lives, but they sure do seem to be popular. The only reason the 2002 documentary Spellbound didn't win the Oscar that year was that it was up against Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Last year's abysmal Bee Season also features a young girl destined for greatness as a master speller, but the film was buried in so much mysticism and artificial family drama that it lost me early in. And playing at Chicago's Drury Lane Theatre right now is the well-received musical "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." And now we have Akeelah and the Bee from writer-director Doug Atchison (whose last film was called The Pornographer; how exactly did he get this job?). While Akeelah doesn't come close to touching the real-life tension and drama of Spellbound, it's still a remarkable piece of work about a young, inner-city girl with a gift, who struggles not only to succeed but also to get past her own fear of sticking out and appearing too intelligent.

This may seem like a ridiculous thing to worry about, but in the school and Southern Los Angeles community where Akeelah (newcomer Keke Palmer, recently seen in Madea's Family Reunion) lives, being singled out for your smarts is cause for mockery. It becomes clear early on that, if trained by an expert, Akeelah will have no problem holding her own in a championship spelling bee. What she must overcome is peer pressure and name-calling, which, for a pre-teen girl, may be the hardest obstacle of all. Although Akeelah is encouraged by the school faculty to fulfill her obvious destiny as a competitive speller (a gift her late and much-missed father first tapped into), she is hesitant because her family is in turmoil thanks to a struggling mother (Angela Bassett) and older brother who is beginning to keep company with drug dealers.

Akeelah decides to keep her competitions a secret from her mother, and begins serious training with a local professor and former bee champion Joshua Larabee (a nicely subdued Laurence Fishburne), who has his own reasons for teaching this sometimes-unruly girl. The film doesn't offer many surprises as Akeelah rises through the ranks of California-based contests and eventually makes her way to the nationals, but it makes up for this by giving us some surprisingly interesting characters that enter Akeelah¹s life, including fellow bee competitors Roman (George Hornedo) and the ice-cold Dylan (Sean Michael), an Asian student whose overbearing father has made the quest for a winning son his only priority. As Akeelah continues to win, she begins to garner attention from the media (primarily because they can't believe a young black girl from a dysfunctional public school is doing so well) and the support of those who once made fun of her. Apparently, it takes a village to nurture a good speller.

Most of the films drama is fairly predictable. Eventually Akeelah's mother finds out about her daughter's clandestine winning, which leads to a confrontation between Basseett and Fishburne (Ike and Tina reunited!). The smartest thing Akeelah and the Bee¹s filmmakers did with their uplifting little film is hire Palmer as the lead. She resists every child-actor trapping to be adorable and cute, and still manages to be highly likeable. Expect her to be in a lot more films in coming years. Fishburne is also quite good as the seemingly centered, Zen-like instructor, who knows exactly how to push Akeelah and tap into her unknown (even to herself sometimes) gifts.

The film's only major flaw is its conclusion at the National Spelling Bee, which is a complete cop out that tries way too hard to wrap things up in a way that won't make anybody feel like a loser. But by that point in the plot, you are so committed to the story of Akeelah and her support team that faulting the film seems petty. Akeelah and the Bee is glorious, if familiar, storytelling that dares to get to know both where its characters came from and what their potential is for growth and success. It's the type of film designed to make you smile and feel enriched to see someone whose life is in the balance, actually succeed and be the better for it. If you think the film sounds too sentimental or sappy for your tastes, you may be surprised how much it moves you. I know I was.

Capone