Something called sportsmanship is involved. The saying is mistaken because to win for the wrong reason or in the wrong way is to lose. It's the only thing" (a quote, by the way, first said not by Lombardi but in the 1930s by UCLA coach Henry "Red" Sanders - but since everybody thinks Lombardi said it, he won, I guess). Vince Lombardi was dead wrong when he said, "Winning isn't everything. It removes winning as the only objective. This ending answers one of my problems with spelling bees and spelling bee movies. There is only one person who absolutely must understand what she is doing, and why - and he does. But Akeelah, improvising in the moment and out of her heart, makes it airtight. Even the judges sense or suspect something. What is ingenious about the plot construction of writer- director Doug Atchison is that he creates this moment so that we understand what's happening, but there's no way to say for sure. Its results I will leave you to discover. Under enormous pressure, at a crucial moment, Akeelah does something good. I've often said it's not sadness that touches me the most in a movie, but goodness. Something happens during the finals of the National Bee that you are not going to see coming, and it may move you as deeply as it did me. Now I am going to start dancing around the plot. He is demanding, uncompromising, and he tells her again and again: "Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." This quote, often attributed to Nelson Mandela, is actually from Marianne Williamson, but no less true for Akeelah (the movie does not attribute it). The sessions between Akeelah and the professor are crucial to the film, because he is teaching her not only strategy but how to be willing to win. Are you gonna sue me for sexual harassment?" And as for Javier's feelings for Akeelah, at his party he impulsively kisses her. Hearing his father berate him, Akeelah feels an instinctive sympathy. ![]() Dylan, driven by an obsessive father, treats the spelling bee like life and death, and takes no hostages. Javier, who lives with his family in the upscale Woodland Hills neighborhood, invites Akeelah to his birthday party (unaware of what a long bus trip it involves). ![]() Villarreal) and an Asian-American named Dylan (Sean Michael Afable). What makes it transcend the material is the way she relates to the professor, and to two fellow contestants: a Mexican-American named Javier (J.R. So far I imagine "Akeelah and the Bee" sounds like a nice but fairly conventional movie. The movie depends on her, and she deserves its trust. It puts her in Dakota Fanning and Flora Cross territory, and there's something about her poise and self-possession that hints she will grow up to be a considerable actress. ![]() Keke Palmer, a young Chicago actress whose first role was as Queen Latifah's niece in "Barber Shop 2," becomes an important young star with this movie. Akeelah practices in secret, and after she wins a few bees even the tough kids in the neighborhood start cheering for her. ![]() Tanya Anderson (Angela Bassett) has issues after the death of her husband, and values Akeelah's homework above all else, including silly after-school activities like spelling bees.
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