Bee Season
Richard Gere stars in this gripping tale about a father obsessed with training his talented daughter for the National Spelling Bee. Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross) demonstrates such an amazing gift for spelling any word given to her that her father Saul (Gere) insists on coaching her himself. But as Eliza's success continues, Saul's newfound devotion grows... causing huge changes for the entire family!
Please note: This is a double-sided disc. To view the rest of the material, flip the disc over in your DVD player.
Member Reviews
Too much and not enough - HisFireFly
This was a jumbled mess of beautiful imagery that was never able to weave itself together in any sort of coherent fashion.
I felt like both children were being damaged by things they didn't understand.
There was too much emotion and not enough depth. Too much magic and not enough explanation. Too many fragments and not enough glue.
I would have liked to delve deeper into the mother's issues.. what was driving her beyond the implied memories of her parents death?
There was enough to hook me into watching the entire film but I was left feeling cheated and somehow tainted as if I had been viewing something far too personal to be shared.All that Charisma ... Misplaced - KevinJaques
All of the 4 family members have charisma, so you pay attention to them. The movie is nicely shot with occasional special effects to show mental processes, so you pay attention to it. The father character's dialogue includes a bunch of esoteric facts about mystic Judaism, so you pay attention to that. The characters are depicted as bright and successful, which is a sufficient novelty, that you pay attention.
You wind up paying attention to something stupid. The little girl is a 1 in 200 million level speller. The father is obsessed with exceedingly rare mysticism. The son gets caught up in a cult. The mother turns out to have been a high functioning loonie for decades, conducting science by day but by night concealing her extremely obsessive and weird project. What are the chances of all this in a single family?
And what is the point? And what was the point of the ridiculous choice by the little girl at the end?
Really, the virtues of the movie did harm. They kept me watching a piece of junk.What a shame, but it's a waste - Port_Moresby
Between the catatonic child, the overbearing father, the unconnected mother and the wilfully touchy son, there's really no one to sympathize with in this film. Who wants to watch Flora Cross's annoying mumbly performance when they can see the much more charismatic stars of Spellbound instead? Or at least Akeelah and the Bee. Touches of Eastern Mysticism are meant to thicken up the story but only make it seem like it's trying too hard to be *important*. A shame considering these are the filmmakers who brought us the absolutely wonderful "Deep End" starring Tilda Swinton.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Too much and not enough - HisFireFly
This was a jumbled mess of beautiful imagery that was never able to weave itself together in any sort of coherent fashion.
I felt like both children were being damaged by things they didn't understand.
There was too much emotion and not enough ...All that Charisma ... Misplaced - KevinJaques
All of the 4 family members have charisma, so you pay attention to them. The movie is nicely shot with occasional special effects to show mental processes, so you pay attention to it. The father character's dialogue includes a bunch of esoteric facts about ...What a shame, but it's a waste - Port_Moresby
Between the catatonic child, the overbearing father, the unconnected mother and the wilfully touchy son, there's really no one to sympathize with in this film. Who wants to watch Flora Cross's annoying mumbly performance when they can see the much more charismatic ...