Akeelah and the bee is a very inspiring movie for students who have lost their hopes in learning and showing off their talents. Akeelah was very reluctant to participate in a spelling bee competition in her school level just because she thought she will be an outcast if she won the competition but this situation was easily handled by her school principle by forcing her into spelling bee competition or she would have to go for detention. Akeelah who skipped school often prior to her mother's knowledge, had to agree to this deal wit her principle. after winning the school competition, she moved forward to the district level competition and followed by national spelling bee competition. Akeelah was guided by a professor who failed to make a success out of his daughter.
From this movie, we can see that even a girl from problematic background can achieve success and be the best among all the privileged kids. this is the kind of hard work that Malaysian students should have in order to do well in their school. they should not only stick to doing their best in academics but also in competitions and extra-curricular activities.
My first reaction to this movie when I heard of it was that it was just another of the typical "underdog overcomes the odds" type of movie that's all too common today. I expected it, therefore, to be a decent movie (most of them are) but not really great. I was surprised. This movie really was superbly put together. It has an air of authenticity about it even though it's not based on reality, and I was absolutely blown away by young Keke Palmer, who played Akeelah perfectly.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it was not stated, I assumed this was based at least loosely on a true story, and found out afterward that it wasn't. :( That was a bit of a letdown, but since the movie never claimed the contrary I have nothing to complain about, although that does leave me free to mention a couple of plot points that otherwise (had they been true) would have been acceptable. The first revolved around the character of Dylan. It seemed to me that the portrayal of his family (and especially his dad) was an overly stereotypical portrayal of the Chinese family insisting on perfection from their children, whether it made their children happy or not. The other (since this never happened) is the overly happy ending to the whole thing. The ending was just too perfect - life generally isn't.
Overall, though, this really was a superb movie that held me tight from the very beginning.
hi Renu,
ReplyDeleteI agree with and Khairul. This movie was not as we expected but went beyond expectations. As i have said before this movie really stole all our hearts and gave the class a great excitement. The meaning was crystal clear and the roles of the teachers were amazingly shown