Each fall brings out emotional, character-driven, intelligent films that producers hope will garner an Academy Award nomination or two.  Fox Searchlight’s Bee Season is one of those films — an American family in trouble story to be compared to Best Picture Oscar winner Ordinary People and the critically-acclaimed The Ice Storm.

Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Myla Goldberg, Bee Season uses a backdrop of local and national spelling bee competitions to dissect an American family fraying at the fringes but held together just enough by the strong bonds of love.  Throw into the mix heady subjects like personal spirituality, identity, and mental illness, and you have a story about washing away normalcy to reveal dysfunction in a very functional way.

Taking on duo directing duties, Scot McGehee and David Siegel (The Deep End) continue their adeptness at visualizing visceral and hypothetical ideas such as the calculating images explaining the Judaic concepts of Kaballah that are important metaphors in the film.  I also admire screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, mother to actors Maggie (The Secretary) and Jake (Jarhead), for using a family dynamic to illustrate the idea that we humans are always trying to obtain perfection in an imperfect world and that happiness is only realized upon figuring out that life’s goals should only be to love and be loved.

The wonderful cast all seem to embody these blemished characters like wet suits, giving pitch-perfect performances deserving of award nominations.  Richard Gere, probably the weakest of the leads, does give his character of Saul Naumann just enough flawed nuances to make him just this side of normal, yet they’re enough to alienate him from his family.  Julliette Binoche gives another solid bit of acting, portraying a woman whose motherly armor slowly disintegrates, revealing unspoken truths that have taken a toll on her psyche.  The newcomer, Flora Cross, who plays the daughter with the uncanny knack for spelling obscure words, underplays beautifully what could have been a too-charming, pre-teen performance.  Her Eliza continues her bee-winning quest even as the pillars holding up her family slowly crumble around her; yet she dodges the falling debris quite bravely.  But the most satisfying performance goes to Max Minghella, son of director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), who has the difficult task of playing the angsty teenager trying to find his place in a world that is his own.  Without over-dramatics, he deftly gives us a dry, emotional picture of a teenager tackling the muddy waters of a post-modern coming of age.  As with all the characters, Minghella’s Aaron tries to find balance between individualism and family life, spiritual exploration and traditional thinking that can bring peace to one’s soul.  Peace seems to come from knowing that love can exist within a family that sticks together even if each member isn’t perfect.

Gyllenhaal wanted to write the kind of movie you leave the theater dying to talk about, and I think she succeeded.  Perhaps we all should leave thinking that, even with our emotional dents and imperfect personas, the most powerful energy in the universe revolves around our love for each other.

Bee Season is a unique, psychological, philosophical, emotional, and entertaining visual experience not to be overlooked now and next February.  Kudos also goes to composer Peter Nashel, whose score captures the emotional core of a film in a way that has not been heard since Thomas Newman’s infectious music for American Beauty.  Bee Season opens Friday, November 11th in select cities and nationwide later this month.

Rich Burlingham