Bee Season

The “bee” here is of the spelling variety, but anyone expecting another Spellbound will be very much disappointed. True, one of the family members in this film based on Myla Goldberg's titular novel is an 11-year-old girl almost preternaturally proficient in spelling competitions, but according to her religion professor father Saul (Richard Gere), she's not only talented with letters but also a chosen individual who can tap into the secrets of the ancient form of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah, in which the profundities of the cosmos are comprehended in the alphabet. While father and daughter are searching for universal truths together, the girl's neglected older brother seeks his own route to higher understanding by joining the Hare Krishna movement. And Saul's scientist wife (Juliette Binoche) suffers a mental breakdown as a result of an obsession with stealing objects that she arranges into a huge collage—an apparent illustration of a Kabbalistic notion about how things that have been broken can be restored to wholeness (presumably the suggestion being made here is that the tattered family fabric can eventually be rewoven too). Co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel's film is handsome to look at but emotionally inert and thematically muddled, more confusing than enlightening in its tale of a family's fascination with spiritual fulfillment. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include both widescreen and full screen versions, audio commentaries (one by filmmakers Scott McGehee and David Siegel; the other by producer Albert Berger and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal), six deleted scenes with optional commentary (7 min.), a six-minute “making-of” featurette, “The Essence of Bee Season” production featurette (6 min.), a four-minute “The Cutting Room Floor” montage of scenes, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)