Not a remake of the Hitchcock film, but an equally (if improbably) suspenseful prospect. The Spelling Bee is a peculiarly American phenomenon which sees thousands of children facing each other off in a Darwinian, last-man-standing spelling test. Jeffrey Blitz’s documentary presents a gripping account of the Spelling Bee National Finals through the stories of eight ambitious young spellers from varying backgrounds, including the daughter of an illegal Mexican immigrant, a girl from the DC projects, a lad from Tornado Central trailer park and an East Indian boy now transplanted to a salubrious Florida suburb.
The competition itself is a fascinating spectacle, even though you half suspect that it would constitute a form of abuse under EU law. The kids are undeniably driven, but there’s more than one pushy parent knocking around and explaining how Little Johnny really took to those pre-natal Latin classes. But this film prefers not to chastise such figures, adopting a feel-good approach that went down a storm at the US box office this summer.
And no wonder. Spellbound is an unashamedly romantic portrait of America as melting pot, keen to demonstrate how the contest ties into ideas about education, social mobility and the American Dream.
There are a couple of failings. Occasionally, one wishes for a bit more by way of intellectual rigour and despite the ethnic and social diversity represented, most of these kids live between etymology lessons and dictionary pages which means they’re a bunch of swots, and not necessarily the buzziest kids to watch for 90 odd minutes.
Still, this is an eccentric delight and almost certainly the most fun to be had from a spelling test.