Note: Spoilers.

It's pretty obvious after watching "Bee Season" to sense that you have seen a mediocre movie that is based on what be a fantastic novel. There's just such a great idea at play here with complex characters and so many unique ideas floating about that you wish one or two would have stuck and helped to create a film that was astounding, moving and awe inspiring. Instead you have what seems like a sort of lackluster welding together of "Spellbound," "Pi," "American Beauty" and "Little Man Tate" that just doesn't gel. We see there's something going on here but instead of coming together as some sort of great goulash of ideas, it seems more like a piece of layer cake with flavors that just don't quite work together.

The biggest problem in front of the screen is the casting of Richard Gere. Granted, it would be doubtful of this film would have got made without an actor of his caliber and recognition in the role, but Gere just misses the mark here as a Jewish theology professor and family man. It's not easy to accept Gere as a deeply fundamental religious family man no matter what his supposed religion is. But it certainly doesn't help matters when the character's teenage son in the story begins to wander and becomes involved in the Hare Krishnas. Gere's own personal baggage as a Buddhist and personal friend of the Dali Lama never fades from our frontal lobe once this happens. It even prompts Gere to smirk as much as we do when he delivers the line, "I used to be a vegetarian once."

But the real problems with the film are the script and the direction. Naomi Foner Gyllanhaal is forced into shorthand with her script and complex and profound issues within the film's themes and story simply become typical Hollywood fare. The ending of the film, where the misspelling of a single word on purpose becomes a gigantic life lesson, seems nothing short of ridiculous in the film. We wade through two hours of personal anguish and deeply theological ideology only to learn that, "It's okay to fail. Things don't have to be perfect. We are human." That could have been written on a postcard and handed to the audience when they came in with just about as much resonance as this film issues such an idea.

The directors here are also very lackluster in their approach to the film. Scott McGehee and David Siegel bring us this film and the problems here are exactly the same problems that haunted their last boring film, "The Deep End." There's too much surface here and not enough, pardon the pun, depth. Everything is slick and cool and perfectly in order but the sleekness of the design and the crispness of the images in the film leave little room for humanity and emotional vibrancy. What we need here is a giant mural, full of splatters and drippings and distortions that still add up to a masterpiece and what we get instead is a beautiful canvas that was created by a paint-by-numbers kit. There isn't enough heart here. The are no chances. Nothing is here that isn't perfectly in its place. We need Darren Aronofsky or Todd Haynes or some newcomer who hasn't had a chance at a studio picture yet. What we get instead, quite obviously, is... well, the guys who made "The Deep End."

The acting here, other than Gere's, is quite lovely. Juliet Binoche isn't given enough time to create her character's arc but she still manages to evoke sorrow and care from her audience quite nicely. Max Minghella (filmmaker Anthony's teenage son) is not only attractive but also carries an enormous character on his shoulders with much ease. Like everyone else but Gere in the film, however, he too is only given a tiny closet in which to exist when his character could fill a mansion. And young Flora Cross, who plays the daughter, is so compelling and interesting that one cannot wait to see what she does next. This is a child actor whose every move on screen seems nuanced and important.

"Bee Season" has the misfortune of coming out at a time when other movies about kids who are into spelling bees are becoming part of the cultural landscape. Sadly, while it is probably the most ambitious story of those to be told on film, it will surely have the delineation of become the least interesting of the lot.

Can you spell D-I-S-A-P-P-O-I-N-T-I-N-G.

Notes:

Also with Kate Bosworth.

The lovely score is by Peter Nashel.

Based on the novel by Myla Goldberg.

Mark Romanek, who was attached to direct for quite a while, is listed as an Executive Producer.

Scripter Gyllenhaal is the mother of Jake and Maggie.

Anthony Minghella is thanked in the end credits.

The Nepotism Factor: Kelly McGelee is Production Designer.

Premiered at Telluride in September of 2005. Fox Searchlight will begin a limited run with the film in November of 2005.

Viewed at an advanced screening during the Austin Film Festival at the IMAX Theater in the Bob Bullock State History Museum in October 2005.

Report Card

Script: C+

Acting: A-

Cinematography\Lighting: A+

Special Effects\Make Up: A+

Music: A+

Final Grade: B-