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Fri, 22 Jul 2005
Where do you draw the fine line between parental help and parental pressure? If you rent and watch the documentary, Spellbound (like we did tonight), you can follow 8 kids (and their parents) prepare for and compete in the 1999 National Spelling Bee. Each parent has their own philosophy when it comes to preparing for and competing in the national spelling bee, some are very much hands-off, whereas some are very much hands-on. For example (and hopefully this won't be giving too much away), while the (*cough* redneck *cough*) parents of one child are sure their child takes time out of his day to do his peacock farming duties (why raise peacocks anyway?) and other chores, another set of (much wealthier) parents schedules their son's day around lessons with private tutors (not to mention also hiring 1,000 or so hungry people back in India to pray for their son's success in exchange for food). What is most interesting about this movie isn't the spelling bee per se (although the drama of the spelling bee is quite intriguing); the spelling bee only provided the context for what is really interesting in this film... and that is the eminently diverse (albeit anecdotal) slice of Americana that it presents. Though, admittedly, the filmmakers could not provide a deep exploration of each family dynamic. Yet, each specific distillation featured did seem to speak broadly enough to get the point across (or perhaps I err when I conclude that I know all that I need to know about a mother after having learned that she designed "Bee Happy" magnetic notepads for her family refrigerator). At its heart, this is a film about growing-up, living, and parenting in America. And it does quite well.
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