Bee Season - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution movie review

Little works dramatically or emotionally in 'Bee Season'

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In "Bee Season," Richard Gere stars as Saul Naumann, a religious studies professor and a cultured West Coast metrosexual who likes to cook gourmet meals — and clean up. He has a beautiful wife, Miriam (Juliette Binoche), a research scientist, and a favorite son, teenage Aaron (Max Minghella), with whom he plays violin duets.

Of less interest to him is his daughter, Eliza (Flora Cross), a shy, withdrawn fifth-grader who seems to have accepted her place at the bottom of the Naumann household food chain. Not that she's mistreated or ridiculed. She's simply not that interesting to Saul — and what interests Saul is what matters in this family.

Fox Searchlight Pictures

'Bee Season'

D+

The verdict: Can you spell "pretentious"?

Directors: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Cast: Richard Gere, Juliette Binoche, Flora Cross, Max Minghella, Kate Bosworth
Run time: 104 minutes
Release date: Nov. 11, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, a scene of sensuality and brief strong language.
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Until, that is, Eliza starts winning spelling bees like Lance Armstrong wins bicycle races. In the movie's best sequences, we see her enter a trance-like state in which she literally visualizes each word. For example, when asked to spell "dandelion," the letters sprout from her hair and shoulders, in the form of tendrils, roots and stems. When a rival stalls midspell, Eliza generously wills an E from the Exit sign her way.

Her unexpected facility with words and letters dovetails nicely with Saul's interest in kabbalah, a branch of Jewish mysticism that's become a name brand recently thanks to celebrities like Madonna and Demi Moore. Now that Eliza's headed for the National Spelling Bee, her father decides to coach her himself, in hopes her gift will somehow become a conduit into the innermost mysteries of kabbalah.

His sudden obsession with his daughter causes seismic shifts in the Naumann family structure. Miriam escalates her already questionable habit of sneaking into empty houses and stealing shiny things. Fallen favorite Aaron is seduced to the saffron side by a comely Hare Krishna (Kate Bosworth) who picks him up in a park.

Gere's onscreen excursion into Judaism isn't as bad as it was in the lamentable "King David." But he misses Saul's essential spirituality, his arcane quest to know God. Of course, almost any actor would have trouble with dialogue that goes something like this: "God is a broken jug..."

The problems go well beyond Gere. Binoche's character may have made sense in Myla Goldberg's best-seller, but here, her nocturnal scavenger hunts come off as ludicrous. As does Aaron's sudden conversion; he seems more taken with Bosworth's beauty than her chants.

Only grave little Cross comes out unscathed, managing to convey a wisdom beyond her years and a soulfulness that seems to come out of nowhere. Little in the movie works dramatically, and nothing connects emotionally — neither the characters with each other nor the characters with us. "Bee Season" is earnest and heartfelt and respectful. And a botch.