6.4
Forty-year-old misanthrope, Guy Trilby, enters the National Golden Quill Spelling Bee through a loophole in the rules.
Jason Bateman
Guy Trilby
Kathryn Hahn
Jenny Widgeon
Rohan Chand
Chaitanya Chopra
Philip Baker Hall
Dr. Bowman
Allison Janney
Dr. Bernice Deagan
Ben Falcone
Pete Fowler
Steve Witting
Proctor at Spelling Bee
Beth Grant
Bedazzled Judge
Gwen Parden
Brace Faced Girl
Anjul Nigam
Sriram Chopra
Allan Miller
Bald Glasses Judge
Bob Stephenson
Bill Murhoff
Patricia Belcher
Ingrid
Matthew Zhang
Braden Aftergood
Madison Hu
Ling Quan
Michael Patrick McGill
Beet Red Father
Judith Hoag
Petal Dubois
Rachael Harris
Eric Tai's Mother
Mychael Bates
Lobster Man
Greg Cromer
Jeremy 'FBI Agent'
Kimleigh Smith
Marzipan
Ethan Dizon
Ricky Irvine
Emily Sarah Carlson
Joyce Sacks
Jacquie Barnbrook
Joyce Sacks' Mom
Mak Kriksciun
Mickey Carlson
Sonia Nam
Jayleen Song
Lucky Davis
Leonard Feldman
Terry Shusta
Cop #1
Connor Kalopsis
Eric Tai
Amanda Anka
National Public Television Narrator
Tanner Goad
Kid #1 on Bike
William Maltz
Chip
Gregory Sutton
Irate Driver
Director
Jason Bateman
Screenplay
Andrew Dodge
July 8, 2015
6
> Good lie, bad words and ugly truth.
I thought it was Cliff Curtis' movie because that's whom I saw in one of the posters. Anyway, it's Jason Bateman's movie, which is also his first directional venture. A refreshing theme because only a very few movies were made based on the spelling bee contest, but this one was a bit messed up story narration. Most of the narrative looked so pale and dull. It is supposed to be an exciting storytelling with blistering pace.
You know, stories in the movies happen with a backdrop of the reasons. Like a piece of uninteresting wood carved into a something that attracts everybody. Some movie holds it till the end to reveal that beauty in the form of a twist, but some won't mind explaining it along the way. In this movie, what they had for the twist was lifeless, boring one, more like a cliché from the older days flick.
The boy from the movie 'Jack and Jill' was decent. I felt some material in the movie was inappropriate regarding a minor in one of the lead roles. But I know the title clearly suggests it is only for adults. Understandable that the writer wanted to give something new, but he could not get it right. Maybe lacked to bring some interesting and inspiring elements. What surprised me was, it was not either for commercial benefit nor a fine art piece.
All the way I knew something was not clinching and finally found out the approach to portray the main character in the negative mode had to do with something. They wanted the viewers to go against him and well, they got it in a way. Interestingly the screenplay was from the 'Black List' which was untouched for almost 10 years. Unfortunately Bateman decided to give it a try and the result is,... Here I'm with not satisfied fully, but okay-okay movie for being at least something different.
6/10
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$9,500,000.00
Revenue:
$7,800,000.00