'Spellbound' review

Originally written the week of Oct. 6th/03
Rating: ***1/2 out of ****

Spellbound is the story of 8 American children who struggle and fight and manage to make it to the 1999 National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. They all come from different American locales, different ethnicities, and very much different families with different values.

All I can say about Spellbound is that it was G-R-E-A-T. Director Jeffrey Blitz takes us into the homes and everyday lives of these children with such comfort that we remember a million different kids that we went to school with when we were younger.

The scenes at the competition were shown excellently with such grace. So much so, that at the competition, even though the parents were putting on fronts for the cameras, the children did not even notice the cameras. I am sure this is because they were under so much stress, as well as having about a hundred other cameras on them. In addition, we could feel the stress as well. I’m kind of embarrassed to say this, but I was actually on the edge of my seat a few times. Jeffrey Blitz actually had the ability to make a Spelling Bee – which I would normally say is boring – actually exciting. We can feel the pressure on these children, as well as the heartbreak for some of them when they lose.

The scenes in the competition were not the most entertaining to see however. The episodes of the various children in their homes and in their natural environments I found particularly captivating. The way we see the pressures on the children to win - some by the parents, sometimes by themselves – it is engaging, and sometimes frustrating. These overbearing parents consistently reminded me of those “pageant parents” who force their children into child beauty pageants. You know these kids are going to need some serious therapy when they’re older. For example, one girl, Angela, her whole reason for entering the pageant was to make her parents proud. Now, what will happen if she loses? How proud will those parents be? The film left us with these kinds of questions, so much so that I was asking them to myself after I left the theater. It wasn’t always directly the parent’s fault. Many of these people come from varying cultural backgrounds; some of which have very strong work ethics, and whether they realize it or not, may be pressuring their children to succeed.

It is not always the parents though. Sometimes it was the child’s own pressure on themselves that caused them to drive for that goal and go to such measures as studying the dictionary for four to five hours a day.

Jeffrey Blitz has the makings of a great documentarian. This film may not have had the razor’s edge of Bowling For Columbine, but it was still great and definitely deserved a nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

One thing bothered me about the film though. Blitz must’ve interviewed many, many children for this film and then selected the 8 specific ones for the picture. Well, the film did its job SO well, that it left me wanting to know about the other children who were left out of the picture.