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Kabbalah), Saul uses each of his family members in a (mostly vain) attempt to deepen his own religious sense (an act finally uncovered by Aaron near the film's end). Meanwhile, his wife, Miriam, is caught stealing and is sent to a mental institution. The relationships amongst all members of the family, which were shallow and disconnected to begin with, fall apart. But family healing is implied in the final scene in which Eliza purposely loses the
National Spelling Bee, a sacrifice drawing upon the spiritual connection she made the night before.
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accident, symbolized by the kaleidoscope she always carried as a child, through which she was presented with its beautiful view of the world, is suddenly shattered when the accident occurred. Thereafter, seeking to restore the broken shards, Miriam compulsively creates beautiful light gathering objects (sometimes stealing them) and storing them in a secret warehouse.
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Saul, even as he falls deeper into religious questioning. At the center of the film, Eliza becomes Saul's newest religious project. Eliza continues to do well at spelling bees, utilizing her spiritual gift, as
Abraham Abulafia described: visions appear to her and help her spell words no matter how difficult.
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or "repairing the world" and "reuniting its shards." In momentary flashbacks by Miriam, we glimpse a scene of a crashed car with shattered glass, apparently the basis of an underlying hurt she has been suffering since childhood, perhaps the death of her parents. The beautiful life she had before the
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The night before the final round of the spelling bee, Eliza uses her father's notes on
Abulafia's system to obtain "the ear of God," allowing God to flow through her. Her body convulsing epileptically on the floor, Eliza apparently makes that mystical connection, providing her the healing power of
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Upon learning of her success, Saul takes control of Eliza's life, coaching her in the
Kabbalistic teachings he knows so well. Eliza enjoys the renewed attention of her father and pursues the competition for her father's involvement. This comes at the expense of Aaron, who receives less time with
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is a much more complex one on personal religious views. Saul can be seen as a
Kabbalistic figure, desperately trying to come closer to God while remaining oblivious to Eliza's natural gift for connecting to God, and to his family's deepening troubles. Instead of using knowledge (as one does in
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Saul's obsession with his daughter's gift and the opportunities it presents to him consume him to the point that he is callously ignorant of the collapse of his family around him — his son's interest in
Hinduism, which soon comes between him and his father, and his wife's psychological problems
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when they married, and he nurtured his son Aaron as a traditional studious Jew like himself. When daughter Eliza wins her class spelling bee, they embark on a course of
Kabbalah study to help her win. The film follows the family and the spiritual quests upon which they journey, in large part
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after meeting a woman named Chali in the park. For Eliza, her experience begins with a desire to be as close to her father as Aaron is; the two would often have discussions about
Judaism and play music together. Saul's graduate thesis on Kabbalah writer
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God. In the final scene, Eliza, on the verge of winning the national spelling bee, and now empowered with the ability to heal her family, deliberately misspells the word
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Saul's son, Aaron, grows unsure of the
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because of Saul: Miriam's attempt to make herself whole, Aaron's religious uncertainty, and Eliza's desire to be closer to her father.
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Miriam lives a secret life throughout her entire marriage to Saul, trying to fulfill the religious idea she learned from him,
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gives the film a score of 43% based on 109 reviews, with an average rating of 5.46/10. The consensus reads, "
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had taken a gross of $ 1,177,082 in the United States, with an opening
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is an intelligent, but frustratingly distant and diffuse drama about family dysfunction."
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moving through the world of competitive spelling, the actual plot of
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gives the film as score of 54% based on reviews from 32 critics.
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While the literal plot simply follows a girl from a somewhat
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gym. Also seen is the downtown section on Park Street in
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897:Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area
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611:"Bee Season (2005) - Box Office Mojo"
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47:adding citations to reliable sources
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887:Films about spelling competitions
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539:s single award nomination was a
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892:Films based on American novels
764:Scott McGehee and David Siegel
588:List of American films of 2005
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932:Films scored by Peter Nashel
862:2000s English-language films
546:nomination for Flora Cross.
922:American multilingual films
902:Films shot in San Francisco
867:2000s Hebrew-language films
431:suddenly thrust upon him.
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335:is a 2005 American drama
135:Theatrical release poster
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526:As of January 29, 2006,
254:Fox Searchlight Pictures
917:2005 multilingual films
357:Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
341:novel of the same name
159:Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
58:"Bee Season" film
927:2000s American films
857:American drama films
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581:Akeelah and the Bee
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316:$ 14 million
284:Running time
261:Release date
228:Peter Nashel
196:Richard Gere
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41:Please help
36:verification
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800:Uncertainty
651:October 26,
572:Film portal
461:Flora Cross
402:tikkun olam
381:UC Berkeley
359:. It stars
288:104 minutes
182:Produced by
141:Directed by
847:2005 films
841:Categories
824:The Friend
792:Bee Season
722:Bee Season
706:Bee Season
695:Bee Season
672:Metacritic
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99:April 2022
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620:9 October
508:Reception
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301:Languages
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558:See also
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