AKEELAH AND THE BEE (DVD)

Director: Doug Atchison (1st major film)
Starring: Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishbourne, Angela Bassett

Maudlin and mawkish, sappy and sweet, schmaltzy and sentimental ...

I'm running through the gamut of terms reserved for this type of uplifting film and Akeelah is all of these and more. It's chock full of 'obstacle overcoming' and 'rising to the challange', and 'underdogs making good' and much more. I'll try to avoid these words from here on out in the review, but guess what else it is? It's also a good little film. We need more positive schmaltz and less cynical snidery, more sincerity and fewer reasons to tune out on our emotions. Of course, the fact remains that this is a darn sappy flick nontheless. There will be no Oscars for Akeelah.

Our little obstacle-overcomer in this film is Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), from the depths of south-central LA. The kids in her school make fun of her, and even beat her up, because she can spell. Success and talent are not encouraged by those too lazy to strive for it. But with a lot of help from Lawrence Fishbourne as an erudite college professor, and Booger from Revenge of the Nerds (Curtis Armstrong - a favorite actor of mine) as her school principle, little Akeelah makes the national spelling bee.

She meets a new crowd of friends, young rich kids much more at peace with themselves (except for the little Asian child forced to spell by his dictatorial father). She learns. She learns words. She learns peace. She learns that there's more to life that what you see around you everyday. She learns a lot.

We've seen the formula a thousand, million times before. Akeelah and the Bee puts the right numbers into the equation, however, and churns out an extrememly positive, endearing little feel-good movie, sappiness, smarminess, and smaltziness aside.

Standouts: Little Akeelah and her friend Mr. Fishbourne.
Blowouts: A tad too twee.

Grade: B