Spellbound

Jeffrey Blitz 2002

As anyone who has seen “Village of the Damned” (1960) will know, super intelligent children are a cause for concern, in fact they should be global security issue based on just how creepy they are. “Spellbound” follows a group of American teenagers as they take part in a national Spelling Bee. For those outside the USA, a Spelling Bee is basically a contest where children have to spell really long hard words.

While being a very competent and well-made documentary, for me “Spellbound” lacked hero’s. Nerdy children who would rather read dictionaries than go out with their friends, and pushy parents who seem to be using their children to prove something, quite frankly worry me. In the end I didn’t really care who won. This film is a veritable hive (get it?!) of geek's, and I guess not being American and having this as part of my upbringing I don’t get the same enjoyment from it that some do. I also don’t really see the point in being able to spell such long obscure words, callipygian anyone?

Like I said, this is a well made film and it does show that any subject can be worthy of a documentary. It’s quirky, fun but not something that I believe will be seen as classic in years to come.