I see that the movie is about a young girl Akeelah Anderson, an eleven-year-old girl from South Los Angeles She is intelligent, but she isn't particularly interested in showing it. In fact, she seems more comfortable blending in with everyone else at school.
That changes when her teacher notices her ability and encourages her to enter the school spelling bee.
Akeelah walks into the competition almost casually, but once she starts spelling, everyone realizes that she is different. She wins, and suddenly the attention she never wanted begins following her.
Larabee is a former professor who recognizes Akeelah's potential almost immediately. But instead of simply congratulating her, he starts pushing her harder. Their first meeting is far from warm, and their relationship takes time to develop. Akeelah doesn't particularly enjoy being corrected, while Larabee isn't interested in making things easy for her.
Eventually, however, he becomes the person helping her prepare for bigger competitions. As Akeelah progresses, the competition gets tougher. She meets Javier, a confident and funny young speller who quickly becomes her friend. Their friendship gives the movie some lighter moments without taking anything away from the main story. Dylan is already one of the strongest young spellers in the country, and unlike Akeelah, he has been preparing for this world for years. His father is extremely demanding, constantly reminding him that coming second isn't good enough. The contrast between Akeelah and Dylan is interesting because they are both talented children, but they are experiencing that talent very differently. Akeelah is trying to understand what she can become.
Dylan is trying to live up to what everyone has already decided he should become.
Meanwhile, Akeelah's mother, Tanya, is not happy with the direction everything is taking. She worries about her daughter and doesn't want spelling competitions to become another responsibility placed on her shoulders. Akeelah, however, has already become attached to the competition and the people around it.
This eventually creates conflict between mother and daughter.
Akeelah even begins hiding her preparations from her mother, travelling to competitions without telling her and continuing her training behind her back. It is one of the weaker decisions Akeelah makes, but it also makes her character feel more real. She is talented, but she is still a child trying to make decisions for herself.
The state competition brings everything together.
Akeelah is under enormous pressure, but she is no longer the nervous girl from the beginning. She has improved, Larabee has helped her, Javier has remained by her side, and even her community has started taking an interest in her journey.
Then Larabee suddenly disappears from her life.
For Akeelah, it feels like another person she trusted has walked away from her. But the reason behind Larabee's decision reveals that he has his own unresolved pain. His connection with Akeelah has brought back memories of his daughter, and he has been struggling with that loss throughout the story.
Eventually, Akeelah and Dylan make it all the way to the National Spelling Bee.
At this point, the movie has done something very well: it has made us interested in both children.
We want Akeelah to succeed, but we also understand Dylan.
When Akeelah realizes how much pressure Dylan is receiving from his father, she doesn't want to win simply because another child has been pushed into losing. She deliberately misses a word.
Dylan realizes what she is doing and does the same.
What follows is one of the most satisfying moments in the film because the competition suddenly stops being about defeating each other. They simply compete.
And when they eventually share the championship, it feels deserved. Akeelah's final word, “pulchritude,” is especially fitting because it takes us back to her earlier struggles and shows how much she has improved. What makes Akeelah and the Bee enjoyable is that the spelling competition never feels like the entire movie. There is Akeelah's relationship with her mother, her friendship with Javier, her complicated relationship with Larabee and her growing understanding of Dylan. All of those relationships give the competition something to mean. Keke Palmer also carries the role of Akeelah very well. She manages to make the character feel like a real eleven-year-old rather than simply a child created to deliver an inspirational message. Laurence Fishburne's Larabee brings a quiet seriousness to the film, while Angela Bassett gives Tanya enough strength and vulnerability to make the conflict between mother and daughter believable. Akeelah and the Bee is ultimately a warm, well acted coming of age story disguised as a spelling competition movie. It has its predictable moments, but the characters keep it engaging, and the journey from that first school competition to the national stage is handled with enough heart to make the final moments satisfying.
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Rating: 95/100
