Humanity can
repair itself. We can piece together the shards
of glass that comprise the universe in such a
way that all that is broken becomes whole.
This basic concept of Kabbalah is, nonetheless,
far from basic for the vast majority of
humanity. We create walls and obstacles and
conflicts and wars and celebrate our
victimization by wearing our shards as war
medals instead of piecing them together,
assembling them back into wholeness.
"Bee Season," a film directed by Scott McGehee
and David Siegel ("Deep End" and "Suture"), is a
film about these shards of life experience and
our often desperate attempts to collect them,
assemble them, make sense of them or simply live
with them without disruption.
"Bee Season" is based upon a novel by Myla
Goldberg, and centers around 11-year-old Eliza
Naumann, a child who has merely existed in a
family too distracted by its own agenda to
notice her. The role of Eliza was originally
designated for Dakota Fanning, however, Fanning
was dropped in favor of newcomer Flora Cross, an
11-year-old with a strong likeness to her screen
mother Mirian, played by Juliette Binoche. While
this is the sort of role that Fanning blossoms
in, the discovery of Cross is a wondrous one.
Cross offers a screen presence similar to early
Jena Malone, where she can emote powerfully in
her silence with a look, a glance, an uttering.
It's a remarkable performance combining the
youthful innocence of an 11-year-old who is wise
beyond her years yet still at the age where she
doesn't understand even the basics of human
relationships, family dynamics or, quite simply,
the way life works.
Yet, searching is how this family seems to have
survived for years. Perhaps it is no surprise
that young Eliza, who comes out of hiding when
her gift for spelling is revealed when she wins
her school spelling bee, is unable to understand
the basics of humanity because her family itself
has become distracted by the shards of life. She
returns home after her win, slips the letter
informing her parents under her father's study
door (where she's not allowed) then quietly asks
her brother to drive her to the city spelling
bee on the morning of it.
Suddenly, young Eliza becomes the focus of her
father, Saul Naumann, a religious studies
professor with a special interest in Kabbalah.
As the incredibly intelligent but remarkably
clueless father, Richard Gere offers his best
performance in years, if not his career. Saul
speaks fluently, gently and with great
spirituality, and yet even his words appear to
be shards that disconnect him from God, his
family and, ultimately, himself. As portrayed by
Gere, Saul is a man who desperately wants to
connect with God and his family, yet he is so
wrapped up into his own agenda, thoughts and
ideas that he can't see the world around him.
His pleadings to his wife in the latter half of
the film to "talk to him" are achingly painful
because she is speaking so clearly and he is
just not hearing her. His scenes with his
daughter are tragic in that it becomes clear he
is not proud of her...he is proud of the fact
that he is her father.
While Saul is distracted by himself, mother
Miriam (Binoche) is distracted by her past. She
has been living a secret life, which is never
fully revealed. In some ways, one could say this
lack of revelation makes sense. Yet because her
character, as written, is underdeveloped it
makes her intense emotional and spiritual
journey almost pointless. Binoche acts it
beautifully, yet I never really cared about her
journeys into different homes, her collecting of
shards, her flashbacks, even the obvious
references to her loss of parents at a young
age. When she finally loses control it lacks the
emotional wallop it deserves because we haven't
had a chance to bond with her fully. We are
aware, perhaps more than any other character, of
her desperation to assemble the shards, but it
is still challenging to care.
Then, finally, there is Aaron, the older brother
who has long been the family's star and the
center of attention for his father. Max
Minghella's performance is almost perfectly
parallel to that of Cross. The scenes between
brother and sister are spiritually intertwined
in their tone and theme. Where Eliza looks
within, Aaron looks externally for his peace.
Much like the mother's role, Aaron is
underdeveloped, especially as his own spiritual
journey takes interesting turns. His scenes with
his sister are tender, poignant and indicate
that in this family, perhaps, it is the children
who are actually spiritual teachers to their
biological parents. When Aaron meets the young,
beautiful Chali, played by Kate Bosworth, in a
local park one day he begins exploring her
spiritual community, discovered to be the Hare
Krishnas. This revelation would provide the only
true moments of emotional disclosure for this
family.
The script, by Naomi Foner, is effective in its
dialogue, situations and development yet it
lacks the humor and depth of the novel by
Goldberg. Foner, mother of current indie faves
Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, has previously
written films such as "Losing Isaiah", "Running
on Empty," and "A Dangerous Woman." Here, she
succeeds and fails in the same ways as her
previous scripts. She doesn't organize the
comprehensive material enough to make it
completely coherent, doesn't fully develop
secondary characters and tries to skim the
surface of a comprehensive novel rather than
fleshing out the central themes. Where Foner's
script shines is in its authenticity for each
character. The fact that even the secondary
performances shine here is testimony to the
authentic, clear dialogue and the cohesive way
in which Foner ties this family together.
The directors, who masterfully handled the human
and family aspects of the film, are considerably
less successful in managing the mystical aspects
of the film. In essence, they choose to "dumb
down" aspects of Kabbalah almost to the point of
presenting it as "pop" religion. Even worse,
they resort to camera tricks to project this
onscreen instead of trusting their actor's
ability to communicate the mysticism. When young
Eliza goes into her "zone" while spelling, we
see various graphics that seldom appear
"mystical," more often leaning towards funny
and/or silly. It's a sad choice as Cross's
performance more than communicated the impact
needed for the scenes. Thus, emotionally
satisfying scenes are diluted by the
cinematography. This is particularly jarring due
to the stellar cinematography throughout the
film. It was impossible to not notice the little
touches throughout the film. Camera angles,
lighting, and other production aspects would
shift upon certain words.
"Bee Season" deserved to be a stellar film. The
film features a stellar debut performance from
young Flora Cross, a career performance from
Richard Gere (He should have received an
Independent Spirit nomination), and marvelous
efforts by Juliette Binoche, Max Minghella and
Kate Bosworth in underdeveloped roles. The film
is weakened by Naomi Foner's overzealous script,
McGehee and Siegel's inability to effectively
translate the inherent mysticism effectively to
the screen, and cheap camera tricks that dilute
the emotionally powerful story.
It is ironic that in a film that so vividly
teaches that we can assemble the shards of our
lives and create wholeness once again, the
directors instead illustrate the challenges in
assembling these shards by ultimately falling
short in bringing the wholeness of Myla
Goldberg's complex novel to life.
©
Written by Richard
Propes
TC Candler's Comment
n/a
Jacob
Hall's Comment
n/a
