Akeelah and the Bee isn't the kind of movie I like to criticize. It is, after all, well intentioned but ultimately, I didn't buy into it. Regardless of it's sweetness and it's earnest attempt at being the quintessential family film, it really isn't a very good movie. Why? I'll get to that in a moment.

Taking a cue from the infinitely more entertaining (and dramatic) documentary Spellbound, Akeelah and the Bee tells the story of Akeelah, a twelve year old spelling protégé who spends most of her time struggling to fit in at her Crenshaw middle school. Eventually, she sees a spelling bee on ESPN and realizes that such competitions might be her ticket. After winning a local bee, she is encouraged by her school principal to push her talent further. Sadly, Akeelah's mom isn't entirely sold on this notion, granted she's a overworked single mother spending most of her extra time making sure her teenage son steers clear of gang culture. Akeelah soon finds aid in the form of Joshua Larabee (hey-Akeelah and the Lara-Bee), a one time college professor and spelling bee champ who has since been humbled by that harsh thing called life.

Where to begin? Akeelah and the Bee is plagued by fake sentiment. It often pulls at the heartstrings so hard that I found myself with a bad case of heart burn. And those who've ever experienced heart burn know, it doesn't feel very good.

Young Keke Palmer does an admirable job here expressing attitude, tenacity, and emotion, and had she been given a stronger screenplay, this could have been huge for her. As it stands, her performance is hindered because of weak writing and direction. Lawrence Fishburne is all too quiet as the lonely Dr. Larabee. His internal pain is evident because the screenplay dictates it, but I never truly felt it. Angela Bassett is spunky as an assertive mother doing the best she can with what she has. Having said that, Fishburne and Basset fared much better as co-stars in Boyz in the Hood and What's Love Got to Do With It, because those films were fueled by real drama, instead of paint-by-numbers sentiment.

Of the entire cast, I enjoyed young George Hornedo best. He plays Akeelah's new bee buddy Roman. This energetic actor has some wonderful, genuine moments with Palmer's Akeelah, and he's able to lend the film truly inspired humor.

As a spelling bee drama this picture bares a striking resemblance to another Lawrence Fishburne film, the vastly superior Searching For Bobby Fisher. Both movies feature child protégés with an amazing gift for their craft (in "Bobby Fisher" it was chess), and both movies feature young protagonists out to make their parents proud. Sadly though, Akeelah and the Bee ditches the subtle nuances that made Searching For Bobby Fisher so effective, and trades them in for numerous clichés that, on more than one occasion, had the Boneman giggling aloud.

The common bond that Akeelah and Larabee share in this film is extremely heavy handed and before everyone paints me a cynic, know that I am extremely susceptible to such business when handled in a less obvious fashion. For instance, I'm an unabashed fan of the Sean Astin film Rudy. That movie features a bond of sorts between Daniel Ruettiger and his grizzled boss Fortune (played by Charles S. Dutton), but the film makers kept this stuff in check in Rudy. In Akeelah and the Bee, the proceedings are far too manipulative making for cheesy and contrived melodrama.

In fact, most of Akeelah and the Bee's numerous shortcomings lie in the mechanical screenplay. Structurally, the picture is all over the map. It doesn't know when to quit. At one point, Akeelah becomes a local celebrity. We're talking big time. Autograph signings, television appearances etc. I can buy into the TV interviews, but autograph signings? It's a bit ridiculous. As for the dialogue, most of it feels like dialogue. This is to say that much of the time, when characters are speaking in this film, the conversations don't really flow. Again, it's all too mechanical. Granted it should be duly noted that Fishburne and Palmer have a few inspired bits of word play, and I'm willing to bet that these particular moments were improvised.

Writer Doug Atchison also serves as director, and his instincts as a film maker don't serve him too well. In addition to being heavy handed, the movie also features some stereotypical moments that are down right offensive. Watch as an angry Asian man criticizes his son for nearly letting a young black girl beat him in a game of Scrabble. This sort of thing might be funny on an episode of King of the Hill (Kahn pulls such business on the Mike Judge show all the time), but in Akeelah and the Bee, it makes the proceedings all the more ridiculous. It's quite simply a one dimensional (and cliched) scenario, something that Paul Haggis took extra pride in avoiding in his stellar Crash.

As for the spelling bee sequences themselves, they're pretty good, although they don't quite lend that sense of tension that you might expect, save for the climactic bee battle between Akeelah and her spelling wiz adversary. The movie takes the safe route where the climax is concerned, but it does so in a way I wasn't really expecting. I suppose one unpredictable moment is better than no unpredictable moment.

In the end, Akeelah and the Bee is a feel good family film that tries far too hard to be a feel good family film. I liken the experience to watching a flick like Patch Adams, although, thankfully, this movie doesn't sink that deep. Unlike pictures such as the previously mentioned Searching For Bobby Fisher, Akeelah and the Bee tries so hard to warm the heart that it loses it's sense of realism. What's left is a cliché buffet with a few effective moments and a cast that is capable of much, much more. Spell mediocre-M.e.d.i.o.c.r.e.