During the Christmas season, it's always tempting to open the biggest package. It has to be something good sitting there, wrapped in the most obnoxiously colorful paper with a big gold bow on top. But usually, Christmas morning is met with disappointment as the paper is ripped off to reveal a super-sized package of colored socks purchased with love from Aunt Mildred. "Bee Season" might be pretty, it might even star Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche, but don't be distracted. This one is full of socks.
The plot unfolds as sixth-grader, Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross), progresses from her school-wide spelling bee to nationals. Her father, Saul the Naumann (Richard Gere), is a distracted professor, focused only on the tangible achievements of his two children. His emotional neglect builds resentment within the family and provides the audience with another firsthand example of a "normal" American dysfunctional family.
An interesting facet of this film is its focus on religion. Its unbiased analysis of the characters' multiple interactions with various religions creates an interesting viewing experience for the atheist and orthodox Jew alike. Each member of the family embarks on their own spiritual journeys throughout the film.
The Naumanns' teenage son Aaron (Max Minghella), disillusioned with his Jewish upbringing, rebels against his task-master father and pursues an interest in Hinduism. Saul, while involving himself in Eliza's goal to win the national spelling bee, realizes that his daughter's interaction with words involves something much deeper than mere spelling. When Eliza begins to spell a word, she is actually able to see the word spelled out in her mind. He proceeds to develop her spiritual connection with words according to a Jewish procedure that supposedly allows some gifted people the opportunity to directly talk to God. Meanwhile, his wife Miriam (Juliette Binoche) buries herself deeper and deeper into her traumatic childhood memories, rendering herself psychologically unstable.
Although the film raises intriguing questions concerning family dynamics, religion,and the general process of growing up, the desired spiritual effect seems overdone. Excessively dramatic scenes and special effects trying to portray the family's various spiritual endeavors leave the audience either confused or annoyed. The film is beautiful - so beautiful in fact that the dramatic effects tend to draw attention away from the narrative focus of the film.
The storyline is moving, the acting commendable, but the piece itself is lacking. A subject matter so intangible is better left expressed in a novel. The age-old problem that lies within movies based on books is that the books are always better. With such an intensely emotional plot, author Myla Goldberg's story would have been better off remaining in novel form.
Despite the weak presentation of the storyline, the acting was superb. Richard Gere successfully portrays an insensitive, goal-oriented father at the center of his unsuccessful family unit. He epitomizes the "I'm living through my children" type and the unknown actors in the film, Flora Cross and Max Minghella, respond vehemently as children under his oppression. His Saul Naumann falls into Gere's typical character type - initially cold and closed off from reality; like Edward Lewis from "Pretty Woman" (1990) and Ike Graham from "Runaway Bride" (1999), Saul is forced through difficult interactions to learn a little bit about love.
With cute little Eliza Naumann in the spotlight, the film initially appears to be a touching coming-of-age story of a young girl pursuing her talent for spelling. In reality the film is intensely dramatic, focusing on the downward spiral of an "ideal" family gone awry. Instead of falling into the family film genre along with "The Sandlot" (1993) and "Now and Then" (1995), "Bee Season" parallels movies such as "American Beauty" (1999) with its darker look into the people behind the appearances.
Like "American Beauty," entertaining development of the family's relationships from the beginning to the middle elicit hope for a successful film. Unfortunately, the elusive and overly mystical ending ruins any trace of closure and leaves the audience emotionally dazed and utterly confused.
Watching champion speller Eliza and confused teenager Aaron try to win over the distracted heart of their father brings up that sympathetic lump in the throat that everyone wants to experience in a holiday tear-jerker. It is unfortunate that the film's appealing cast and absorbing subject matter aren't able to overcome the typical challenges that come with translating books to the screen.
