Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure
Akeelah and the Bee
Saw an inspriational tear jerker of a movie today. Akeelah and the bee is about an 11 year old African American girl growing up in South Central Los Angeles trying to be cool and go to school at the same time, with an incredible talent for spelling. The odds are all against her, her father is dead, her brother is a dead beat, her sister has a baby in the house, her mother works all the time, and is on edge. Only her older brother is concerned about her. He is in the Air force and encourages her when he is around, promising to parachute down when she in Washington D.C. for the Scripps national spelling bee finals.
Her coach Dr. Joshua Larabee (Lawrence Fishburne), on sabbatical from U.C.L.A., is recovering from the loss of his daughter and divorce from his wife. He is inspirational and provides context to the words for Akeelah (Keke Palmer). He tells her you have to say the word correctly, before you can spell it, explaining the roots of words from Latin, Greek and French. He has her read books on African American history and the Civil Rights Movement. He does not allow her to speak to him in “ghetto talk” but to be polite and refrain from slang.
Akeelah meets up with another speller who has a crush on her, Javier. Javier invites her to his home in the ritzy Woodland hills, where his friends play scrabble on his birthday. He even gives her a quick impulsive kiss!
Akeelah practices for the spelling bee by including her whole neighboor hood, from the Korean grocer, to the local cool guy, from her mother to all her siblings, to her friends and her teachers at school.
After watching the movie, you come out feeling positive since at the Bee, Akeelah changes the meaning of winning to encompassing all with her goodness. She is willing to forgo the prize so that another contestant who is under a lot of pressure from his family to win, can will. But he sees through her kindness, and does not let her lose. So we come out of the movie in the true spirit of sportsmanship, where everyone fights a good fight and lets all of us be winners.
Review by Roger Ebert
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060427/REVIEWS/60421002/1023
Saw an inspriational tear jerker of a movie today. Akeelah and the bee is about an 11 year old African American girl growing up in South Central Los Angeles trying to be cool and go to school at the same time, with an incredible talent for spelling. The odds are all against her, her father is dead, her brother is a dead beat, her sister has a baby in the house, her mother works all the time, and is on edge. Only her older brother is concerned about her. He is in the Air force and encourages her when he is around, promising to parachute down when she in Washington D.C. for the Scripps national spelling bee finals.
Her coach Dr. Joshua Larabee (Lawrence Fishburne), on sabbatical from U.C.L.A., is recovering from the loss of his daughter and divorce from his wife. He is inspirational and provides context to the words for Akeelah (Keke Palmer). He tells her you have to say the word correctly, before you can spell it, explaining the roots of words from Latin, Greek and French. He has her read books on African American history and the Civil Rights Movement. He does not allow her to speak to him in “ghetto talk” but to be polite and refrain from slang.
Akeelah meets up with another speller who has a crush on her, Javier. Javier invites her to his home in the ritzy Woodland hills, where his friends play scrabble on his birthday. He even gives her a quick impulsive kiss!
Akeelah practices for the spelling bee by including her whole neighboor hood, from the Korean grocer, to the local cool guy, from her mother to all her siblings, to her friends and her teachers at school.
After watching the movie, you come out feeling positive since at the Bee, Akeelah changes the meaning of winning to encompassing all with her goodness. She is willing to forgo the prize so that another contestant who is under a lot of pressure from his family to win, can will. But he sees through her kindness, and does not let her lose. So we come out of the movie in the true spirit of sportsmanship, where everyone fights a good fight and lets all of us be winners.
Review by Roger Ebert
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060427/REVIEWS/60421002/1023
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