Spellbound

A-

I had heard a lot of good things about this documentary on kids competing in the National Spelling Bee. The Bee has become very famous in the last ten years, with coverage on ESPN, and even a movie (Akeelah and the Bee) and plays (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) in 2006. Watching this documentary is a better way to enjoy the whole thing. The bees themselves just aren't that exciting to watch as kids ask for definitions, origins, pronunciations, usage, etc., often over and over again. But with the movie they can skip over a lot of that (enough to allow for some drama) and also let you get to know some of the contestants. They chose a diverse group of eight young teens to follow for the movie and show them as they advance from the Regionals and slowly drop off at the Nationals.

You also get to meet their parents and see what each of the kids goes through to prepare for the big contest. This is great reality programming. Most of the kids are likable, some more than others. It seems like it is fairly easy to advance out of the regional contests, but when over a hundred of the best spellers hit the national tournament, the competition becomes absolutely unreal. They spell words I've never even heard of. They have spent countless hours reviewing spelling lists and practicing on thousands of words a day. Their abilities go far beyond that of their supportive parents and one girl's father doesn't even speak English. In the final rounds everyone is so good at spelling that it seems to come down to the luck of the draw as much as anything on whether they get a word they've heard before.

The movie certainly rises above the subject matter of a spelling bee, but somehow still seems bound ultimately to the fact that a spelling bee just isn't as watchable as the Olympics or a great football game. As such, I will give this an A-.

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