Spellbound
Dir. Jeffrey Blitz. 2002. N/R. 95mins. Documentary.

Knowing how to spell onomatopoeia or syzygy doesn't really count for much in a world where computer programs can scan a document for errors in a matter of seconds, yet each year scores of pint-size brainiacs commit half the OED to memory, just to prove that they can. Spellbound, an engaging, occasionally nerve-racking documentary that follows eight kids on their journey to the final round of the National Spelling Bee, somehow makes this arguably pointless endeavor look downright heroic. For most of the film's subjects, prize money and scholastic glory are minor concerns; knowing the correct answer is a matter of personal pride—a means of imposing order on what are frequently chaotic surroundings. And there's something agreeably romantic about people applying themselves with such earnest diligence to an activity with zero real-world applicability. Even a philosophy major can teach philosophy.

Warm, funny and packed with telling details—in a moment that no screenwriter would have the nerve to invent, a South Asian prodigy versed in half a dozen languages has trouble with Darjeeling—Spellbound suffers from a frustrating lack of focus. Just as you start to warm to one of the kids, Blitz introduces another; the film would have been more effective (though perhaps less suspenseful) had he whittled his eight contestants down to three—preferably the South Asian boy, any one of the several frighteningly self-possessed girls and the complete spaz case (who at one point asks whether the boom mike is edible)—and devoted half an hour to each. But...okay, hold on. How do you spell nit-picking again?—Mike D'Angelo