Concerning AKEELAH AND THE BEE's poor box office showing, Elizabeth wrote that "a large pt. of this audience probably has already seen SPELLBOUND." That's what put me off the movie, but I finally broke down under the pressure of its positive reviews and queued it up. I enjoyed the heck out of it.
AKEELAH AND THE BEE faithfully adheres to the sports movie / inspirational tale formula, but that formula has been around so long because it's so unerringly effective. Akeelah is a spelling prodigy from a rough part of L.A. who follows her dream to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Will she grow? Will she find worth in her own eyes and the eyes of others? Will she win? Come on - you've been to the movies before. More importantly, does it work? Yes, as a matter of fact. It does.
Keekee Palmer is fine as Akeelah, and Angela Basset and Laurence Fishburne both do fine work here. The movie even offers a few treats to the SPELLBOUND crowd, working some familiar faces from that excellent documentary into the fictionalized version of the Bee, but the star of this movie is the formula. And it always hits its mark.
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