For as cold and unpleasant as this movie is, the filmmakers might as well have dubbed it “Flu Season.” An adaptation of Myla Goldberg’s 2000 best-selling novel about a young spelling genius whose winning ways precipitate a meltdown of an upper crust Northern California family (the book actually sets the story near Philadelphia), “Bee Season” gets bogged down by too much BS about a half-baked correlation between spelling contests and the mystical practices of Kabbalah as offered up by Richard Gere’s grating, narcissistic academic, Saul Naumann.
Newcomer Flora Cross exhibits tremendous range and emotional depth as 11-year-old Eliza, whose sudden savant-like ability to spell is interpreted by dad Saul as the illumination of a direct path to God. And you thought the ABC’s were simple. Meanwhile, Eliza’s older brother Aaron (Max Minghella, son of director Anthony) inexplicably rebels against his father’s withdrawal of affection by joining the Hare Krishnas after being wooed by a comely devotee played by Kate Bosworth. Mom Miriam (Juliette Binoche) literally stumbles through the movie, her mental state increasingly imperiled by haunting memories of her long-dead parents and her loveless marriage. Miriam eventually winds up in a mental institution after being arrested for grand larceny. At least they have a TV so she can watch Eliza compete in the National Spelling Bee. The word is “bewildering” and it’s spelled “B-E-E-S-E-A-S-O-N.” (RATED PG-13. RUNNING TIME: 104 MINUTES)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 11, 2005. Read the original PDF.