Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
Wordy Rappinghood:
Bee Season
11-9-05 Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times column
by Richard Knight, Jr.
A giant “A” is suspended over the San Francisco skyline as Bee Season begins, slyly grading both the city and
the movie we are about to see. This is an obvious, direct homage to the Christ statue dangling from the helicopter
at the start of La Dolce Vita and like Fellini’s masterpiece, metaphorical imagery hangs heavy over Bee Season.
The use of symbolism in a film about characters obsessed with words and their deeper meanings isn’t hard to
fathom (though the giant “A” is to say the least, a tad forced). Nor is it surprising to learn that a movie so in love
with this device has been helmed by the gay-straight directing team of Scott McGehee and David Siegel whose
previous movies are the allegory ladened but highly entertaining Suture and The Deep End. There’s nothing these
two like more than the chance to use metaphor and with a layered piece like Bee Season they’ve hit the jackpot.
And like Suture and The Deep End, the heavy stuff is delivered inside a richly entertaining narrative.
The story, scripted by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal (mother of actors Jake and Maggie) and based on the novel by Myla
Goldberg, concerns the emotional spiral of the upwardly mobile Naumann family. When we first encounter the
family its refreshing to see one in which education and culture are so venerated. Richard Gere plays Saul, a
religious studies professor and the family’s intellectual and artistic guru. He practices classical duets with his
teenage son Aaron (Max Minghella) after dinner (no television or video games in this house), mildly criticizes his
gorgeous wife Miriam (Juliette Binoche) and barely seems to notice 11-year old Eliza (Flora Cross).
But almost as soon as Eliza, with her Macaulay Culkin lips, timidly confesses that she’s won an important spelling
bee and is moving on to the next level everything changes. After seeing Eliza win another round Saul realizes that
his daughter has an amazing gift and he becomes convinced that through her he might reach the ear of God. For
instead of seeing dead people Eliza can see words. McGehee and Siegel rapturously show us Eliza’s visualizing of
the words and going into a kind of trance as each letter makes its appearance. These sequences, the visual high
point of the film, are greatly aided by Peter Nashel’s musical score.
Once Saul is convinced of Eliza’s gift out come the ancient Kabballah books and intense, secret training for the little
girl, who obviously just wants to please her father, commences. Meanwhile, left in the lurch, both Aaron and
especially Miriam spin off into separate emotional landmines. The one involving Aaron is silly and superfluous (and
wastes Kate Bosworth) while Miriam’s sidebar is deeply affecting (and Binoche handles the tricky character
beautifully). At times the movie seems almost an outtake story from the recent excellent documentary Spellbound
that focused on several contestants in the national spelling bee. But Bee Season has the advantage of fiction – and
the ability to whip the low key drama into high melodrama (hallmarks of both the previous McGehee/Sigel movies).
Throughout the film it slowly dawns that Saul is a brilliant and horrifyingly tyrannical manipulator – polite and
compassionate though he might seem to be – and that his obsession with the mystic is destroying his family. The
family’s inviting old house with its ornate carved, solid woodwork is sturdy but also oppressive for its fragile
inhabitants. Even the quiet tyrant Saul is wounded at heart, which Gere easily conveys. Since Unfaithful in 2002 I
have liked every performance that Richard Gere has given (before that there were just two –Internal Affairs and
And the Band Played On). I don’t know what accounts for my newfound appreciation for his performances –
perhaps Gere’s age and experience have taught him humility (his early films are overwhelming in their concurrent
smirking superiority and deep insecurity) – or his ability to find roles to showcase his new found abilities (like his
surprising, delightful turn in Chicago). Perhaps it’s that his handsomeness no longer seems to be a burden (as it
does – insufferably – in the insufferable Warren Beatty) or that he’s finally comfortable in his own skin (on
camera at least). Whatever the reason – he does excellent work here.
I’m not one to grade movie’s but when confronted with one that combines the trendy themes of spelling bees and
the Kabballah (aka Madonna’s latest “find”) – how can I resist? Plus or minus, McGehee and Siegel have crafted
an exceedingly intelligent, thoughtful movie that lingers in the air not unlike that giant “A” with which it begins.
Bee Season gets a “B.”
Bee Season
11-9-05 Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times column
by Richard Knight, Jr.
A giant “A” is suspended over the San Francisco skyline as Bee Season begins, slyly grading both the city and
the movie we are about to see. This is an obvious, direct homage to the Christ statue dangling from the helicopter
at the start of La Dolce Vita and like Fellini’s masterpiece, metaphorical imagery hangs heavy over Bee Season.
The use of symbolism in a film about characters obsessed with words and their deeper meanings isn’t hard to
fathom (though the giant “A” is to say the least, a tad forced). Nor is it surprising to learn that a movie so in love
with this device has been helmed by the gay-straight directing team of Scott McGehee and David Siegel whose
previous movies are the allegory ladened but highly entertaining Suture and The Deep End. There’s nothing these
two like more than the chance to use metaphor and with a layered piece like Bee Season they’ve hit the jackpot.
And like Suture and The Deep End, the heavy stuff is delivered inside a richly entertaining narrative.
The story, scripted by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal (mother of actors Jake and Maggie) and based on the novel by Myla
Goldberg, concerns the emotional spiral of the upwardly mobile Naumann family. When we first encounter the
family its refreshing to see one in which education and culture are so venerated. Richard Gere plays Saul, a
religious studies professor and the family’s intellectual and artistic guru. He practices classical duets with his
teenage son Aaron (Max Minghella) after dinner (no television or video games in this house), mildly criticizes his
gorgeous wife Miriam (Juliette Binoche) and barely seems to notice 11-year old Eliza (Flora Cross).
But almost as soon as Eliza, with her Macaulay Culkin lips, timidly confesses that she’s won an important spelling
bee and is moving on to the next level everything changes. After seeing Eliza win another round Saul realizes that
his daughter has an amazing gift and he becomes convinced that through her he might reach the ear of God. For
instead of seeing dead people Eliza can see words. McGehee and Siegel rapturously show us Eliza’s visualizing of
the words and going into a kind of trance as each letter makes its appearance. These sequences, the visual high
point of the film, are greatly aided by Peter Nashel’s musical score.
Once Saul is convinced of Eliza’s gift out come the ancient Kabballah books and intense, secret training for the little
girl, who obviously just wants to please her father, commences. Meanwhile, left in the lurch, both Aaron and
especially Miriam spin off into separate emotional landmines. The one involving Aaron is silly and superfluous (and
wastes Kate Bosworth) while Miriam’s sidebar is deeply affecting (and Binoche handles the tricky character
beautifully). At times the movie seems almost an outtake story from the recent excellent documentary Spellbound
that focused on several contestants in the national spelling bee. But Bee Season has the advantage of fiction – and
the ability to whip the low key drama into high melodrama (hallmarks of both the previous McGehee/Sigel movies).
Throughout the film it slowly dawns that Saul is a brilliant and horrifyingly tyrannical manipulator – polite and
compassionate though he might seem to be – and that his obsession with the mystic is destroying his family. The
family’s inviting old house with its ornate carved, solid woodwork is sturdy but also oppressive for its fragile
inhabitants. Even the quiet tyrant Saul is wounded at heart, which Gere easily conveys. Since Unfaithful in 2002 I
have liked every performance that Richard Gere has given (before that there were just two –Internal Affairs and
And the Band Played On). I don’t know what accounts for my newfound appreciation for his performances –
perhaps Gere’s age and experience have taught him humility (his early films are overwhelming in their concurrent
smirking superiority and deep insecurity) – or his ability to find roles to showcase his new found abilities (like his
surprising, delightful turn in Chicago). Perhaps it’s that his handsomeness no longer seems to be a burden (as it
does – insufferably – in the insufferable Warren Beatty) or that he’s finally comfortable in his own skin (on
camera at least). Whatever the reason – he does excellent work here.
I’m not one to grade movie’s but when confronted with one that combines the trendy themes of spelling bees and
the Kabballah (aka Madonna’s latest “find”) – how can I resist? Plus or minus, McGehee and Siegel have crafted
an exceedingly intelligent, thoughtful movie that lingers in the air not unlike that giant “A” with which it begins.
Bee Season gets a “B.”
How do you spell c-r-i-s-i-s?
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