Spellbound (2002)

I was even more shocked by the enthusiastic comments posted here than by the movie itself. Is THIS America, following a meaningless aversion and letting kids waste their time in a kind of sportive drilling as this spelling contest? If all of them had spent their time in a more intellectual way, they could have reached much more than with spelling like a computer. Especially the Indian father of (was it Neil) with his obsessive preparations seems disgusting to me, like someone who lives the mythes of "the American dream" as a caricature. I miss all along in this movie a critical point of view; it shows us struggle and hopes of all these children, but leaves us with many unanswered questions: what was it all about? Is everyone happy with the procedures of this contest? What about the story of the little ADHD-guy who is really lovable, but must be a nightmare to his mother and teachers? I asked myself all the time where the hard-working Asians where. No single one to spot on the podium. Maybe they understood and did real studies instead? I give three stars because nevertheless, this movie is a quite interesting peer into some parts of the American society. And it's not a boring movie. But it's quite flat and stays on the surface. The stupid repetitive soundtrack that creates (too) much artificial tension makes it worse, not better. Anyway, after seeing this movie, I felt instantly much more comfortable in the relaxed variety of European culture.

Most people believe that it is a good thing to be a decent speller, to a certain extent, but beyond, you're just flaunting how impressive you are. The eight contestants in Jeffrey Blitz's surprisingly tense pun-titled documentary, who have come from all over America to battle in the National Spelling Bee, are never possible to need these words. As we watch them training with flashcards and worksheets, we wish they will win, but we're not certain what they will gain from it.And nevertheless for some of them, winning the bee will make a important change in their lives, not because they can spell so well, but because the prizes consist of college scholarships. For instance, consider Angela Arenivar. She pulls through all the way to the finals in Washington, D.C., from the Texas farm where her father works as a manual worker. He initially came into the country illegally, even now speaks no English, and is full of pride past all expression of his intelligent daughter.We root for her in the finals, however in that case we root for all of these kids, because it is so easy to hark back to the torture of getting an answer wide of the mark in front of the whole class. None of these pre-teens is just good at spelling. Blitz takes his documentary into their homes and schools, observes their families and goals, and baring to us that they're all clever in many other ways--including the way that makes them a little lonely at times.Take Harry Altman, who has so many funny habits and idiosyncrasies that he reminds me of a few things I did when I was his age that I didn't think any other kid ever did. School cannot be unproblematic for him, although he will have his vengeance at the reunion, by which time he will I am sure be a notable intellectual or an honored laureate, and perhaps his behavior will be different to the point where they will hardly recognize him.This movie is a compassionate vindication for kids in that it knows that, for the most part, to be smart is to be an outcast in high school. To be looked at as smart is even worse because many kids that could have been one of this film's contestants learn to cover up their intellect. There is a breed of harsh hero worship of the "common person" or the "underdog" in the company of a lot of adolescent social circles that punishes the ones who try harder or are more talented. The film follows its finalist kids from Florida, small town Texas, Washington D.C. projects, California, Missouri, New Jersey Pennsylvania and Connecticut, so this issue is shared across regions.In his Oscar-nominated documentary, Jeffrey Blitz, who later made a great feature film called Rocket Science about a stuttering kid who competes in a high school debate team, opens with documentary descriptions of his eight finalists and then tracks them to Washington, D.C., where they vie on ESPN, and not only is it academic excellence that competes, but also class differences and dedication in whether one wants to ascend the socioeconomic ladder or add another perk to their fabulous resume.We've never heard most of the words, which is where most of the fun comes from, especially if you're watching the movie with someone else. Clavecin? Tuyere? Cephalalgia? Palimpsest? A lot of the drama and suspense comes from the close-ups of these kids during their moments of truth, learning that the common spelling imperatives are helpful no more than up to a rare degree, and then recollection is your only chance. Some of these kids have studied literally all day every day, learning words by heart that they may well never hear, write or make use of. Yet when they think they recognize a word, it's valuable to stop dead and be in no doubt, because as soon as you get to the end of a word you can't repeat. You don't win owing to your total score, but because you have been perfect longer than some 300 other kids.Ironically, when the kids lose, all of course except for one, some of them shrug it off, and a few look as if relieved to be liberated from the stress and worry. One girl is distraught when she meets with defeat, but we know it's because she knew it, and still lost. They're all winners, one way or another, and had to place first in their state or regional contests to get here, but for some it matters more here than others.

Hitchcock did not direct this and it does not star Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. Spellbound (1945) and Spellbound (2002) have in common the fact that they both won Academy Awards and both are spellbinding.Director Jeffrey Blitz's approach to making this most interesting documentary is straight-forward: pick eight contestants. Produce a mini-documentary on each one of them with scenes from family life, school. Interview their teachers, their parents, and some of their friends so that we get to know the contestants. Show the town they live in and the land they grew up on. Cut each mini-documentary to a few minutes and run them one after the other before taking us to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.Film the spelling bee and show the eight in action along with some of the other 242 or so who made it to the Capitol. Start with round one. Show the officials, the people who read the words to the contestants and answer questions about the words, such as word origin, definition, pronunciation, and root. Show the eager parents. Show the kids on stage with wrinkled brow and sweaty hands--well, you can't show the sweaty hands, although one mother reported that her hands got all wet when her daughter's turn came and then got all dry afterwards. Get some shots of the kids talking. Show the faces with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat And guess what? The film plays itself. It's a natural. We identify with the contestants, perhaps have our favorite. The tension builds. The hour and a half flies by. The spelling bee is a great spectator sport! Another thing I liked about this was the fact that although the eager parents would put your usual stage moms or little league dads to shame in the way they pushed their kids, when it was over, it was over. A couple of the kids said they were disappointed not to have won, but what a relief it was not to have to study the dictionary anymore! Of course there is always next year, but unlike baseball and the Broadway stage, you can grow too old to compete in the spelling bee--although now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised to find that they have adult spelling bees, maybe even spelling bees for senior citizens.Another nice thing is the view Blitz gives us of the Heartland. The film amounts to a glimpse of America the melting pot near the beginning of the 21st Century (the contest is from 1999).Also educational were insights into the way the kids learned to be excellent spellers. They memorized, yes, but they also learned which letters were likely to be correct for certain sounds based on the language of origin of the word. Greek words--there a lot of scientific Greek words in the dictionary--almost always have every letter pronounced (although watch out for those silent leading "m's"!). French words are just the opposite. I used to teach honors English and I can tell you that half the kids could out-spell me. The best kid I had just seemed to do it naturally. I realized however after talking to him that his approach was phonetic to start. That was the default. Every word that could be spelled correctly phonetically he noted and put aside in his mind. (His habit was to notice the spelling of every new word he encountered.) If the word was not spelled phonetically, it was an exception and he noted why it was an exception and dreamed up some mnemonic--silent leading m!--device to remember the exception. I could never spell a word like "lieutenant" (French) until I also developed a mnemonic device. In this case I made a sentence out of the word: "Lie-u-tenant" or I found the little words within: "lie," ... "ten," "ant." Spellbound won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2002, and it's that good. People and especially young people can identify (or not!) with kids their own age, and they can choose their favorites to root for.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

I love this movie. I am actually a teacher, and sometimes I get very teary eyed when I watch the DVD of this movie. We spend a lot of time talking about all of the bad things that kids can do, and we sometimes don't recognize the outstanding achievements that many young people can make. The idea for this movie is amazing. The editing and storytelling is done remarkably. Each child's thought processes, their life in school, and their families are portrayed delicately, and with a healthy dose of humor. My favorite part is when the Indian student's father said that in America, you can lose at something, then still recover and be a success. I feel that this is a part of the American dream that many Americans take for granted. With all of the great aspects of this movie, you also end up learning many things. That being said, I wish that the DVD did a better job with updates of the participants. It would have been nice to see how being in the contest and the film changed these kids' lives.