Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Richard Gere | ... | Saul | |
Juliette Binoche | ... | Miriam | |
Flora Cross | ... | Eliza | |
Max Minghella | ... | Aaron | |
Kate Bosworth | ... | Chali | |
Corey Fischer | ... | National Spelling Bee Pronouncer | |
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Sam Zuckerman | ... | National Spelling Bee Judge |
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Joan Mankin | ... | Ms. Bergermeyer |
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Piers Mackenzie | ... | Dr. Morris |
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Lorri Holt | ... | Ms. Rai |
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Brian Leonard | ... | Mr. Julien |
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Jamal Thornes | ... | Wiseacre Boy's Mate |
Kathy McGraw | ... | Regional Bee Pronouncer | |
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John Evans | ... | Regional Bee Judge |
Alisha Mullally | ... | Young Miriam |
Living in Oakland, California, the Naumanns are outwardly a loving, supportive family. Husband and father Saul Naumann is a Religious Studies professor, and looks to his religious training in Judaism as tenets for his family to live. He has high expectations for all members of his family. His mid-teen son, Aaron Naumann, idolizes his father, and does whatever he can to please him. His pre-teen daughter, Eliza Naumann, often feels the neglected child. So when Saul eventually learns that Eliza is participating and excelling in spelling bees, she becomes the focus of his life as he believes that letters in the form of words will lead to answers to the universe. That change in focus to Eliza makes Aaron now feel the neglected one, he who strikes out quietly in his own way with the help of Chali, a young woman he meets. But the person who has felt the most pressure within Saul's way of life is his wife, Miriam Naumann, a microbiologist. She converted from Catholicism to Judaism when she ... Written by Huggo
It's true.. the book is always better than the movie. I thought that this movie was very disappointing to watch after having reading the book.
The movie moves too fast, though I can understand because of time limit, to actually give the viewers the concepts that the book gives. A lot of details and events are cut from the book that is important to the story as a whole. The script seems undeveloped, and the actors/actresses carried out their character with mediocre performances.
Saul (Richard Gere) is somewhat true to his character. The only thing he is obsessed with is to enable Eliza to communicate with God. He does this in a way that is the most true to novel.
Aaron's (Max Minghella) appearance is very different from that described in the book. He is described as a pale and scrawny young man, who is incapable of getting dates and is a social outcast. His search for a new religion seems unreasonable and spontaneous in the movie, and I thought it didn't really capture his true character.
Miriam's (Julliete) kleptomania is weird in both the book and the movie. Her actions in the book seems more reasonable when I knew her purposes for doing it. In the movie I thought it was a very random thing for her to do.
Eliza (Flora Cross) is a young actress, and is limited to what she can do. Her acting is very mediocre at best, and does not convince me of Eliza that is in the novel.
Chali, which I am surprised to see, have been transformed from a middle-aged man into a young blond girl. I can understand why they did that, but that just adds to the falseness of Aaron's character.
Overall I think the movie is an average depiction of Bee Season. I can't say that they did a nice job of sticking to the plot. It's almost impossible to transform a novel into a movie with everything in the book.