More mocking than documentary---a poor attempt at showing the spelling bee world
I think the world of Professional spelling bees could be interesting. I know I've caught myself watching it on TV and found it very interesting. So I thought that Spellbound could have really been an interesting look at the inner workings and I was completely wrong. In fact I think the film maker for this "documentary" meant nothing more than to poke fun and make a film about the stereotypical "nerds" and their hobby of spelling. I mean no disrespect to the children in this film but the ones that are focused on are made to look like the kids that get beat up on the school yard and I am positive they could have either found a balance of personalities partaking in this or at the very least made the children they did focus on seem a little more interesting and perhaps shown to enjoy other things in life than just spelling. Yes I know the film was about spelling bees but were these children actually raised from birth to become spelling champions because that was the impression the film left me with. I was blown away to discover that this film was actually nominated for an Oscar let alone other awards.I am not going to review the performances by any of the people in this film because they weren't actors. This was a documentary, not a drama or comedy or anything else. I will however discuss the film maker and director Jeffrey Blitz. Two things should be noted...first of all this was his first film as a director. Secondly Mr. Blitz went on to direct the very popular dry humor comedy The Office. Coincidence? It would lead me to believe once again that Jeffrey Blitz was not taking this very seriously which is fine if it was presented as some sort of mockumentary comedy which it was not. I also feel bad for the kids portrayed because this was serious for them likely but I simply wanted to laugh through most of the film.
The Oscar Nomination is just ludicrous because no matter how you look at Spellbound it just wasn't good. Even if you take the participants for what they were...they were far from interesting. It was like watching people come out of a comic book convention (no offense, I love Comic Books too.) The kids were awkward, socially outcast and just made to look like the most stereotypical geeks you could possibly think of. Spellbound is far from interesting and it certainly won't make you think highly of spelling bees or want to participate or visit one...ever. Steer clear of this stinker, it's barely entertaining. 5/10
score 5/10
Robert_duder 29 April 2009
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2059489/35631
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