And the first boggy bit was the serious miscasting of Richard Gere as a Jewish Talmud/Kabbalah professor (I seem to recall him in another odd role, an ob/gyn). Richard is quite able but only in more believable parts, those particularly involving his terrific good looks. Disbelief thus gets suspended in the first five minutes of this movie.
And no, the story is not about spelling bees but about enlightenment and wisdom - through words.
However, the rest of the casting is superb, Juliette Binoche as the mother is marvellous in every scene, her sadness permeates both the screen and the viewer and there is a wonderful use of brief flashbacks, broken spectacles and glass, to push her story through and we gain a total understanding of the darkness that overtook her when her parents died in an accident. She has been seeking the light ever since.
Flora Cross, in her first role, is amazing in her understated role of Eliza, the eleven year old spelling whiz. She holds all the wisdom of the family.
Max Minghella plays the son and defies the challenge of some rather awful dialogue to convey the son who loves and understands his sister but is baffled by his controlling father and fragile mother.
Disbelief is again suspended when this son is swept into the Hare Krishnas far too quickly (it was all about lust, you see) and then, just as swiftly, swept out at the speed of light by the furious father.
I found the whole business with the mother, Miriam, ex-French Catholic, Jewish convert, totally believable in her seeking of the light and the final expose, much to the shock and horror of her husband, was beautifully done. Miriam hides from her family, terrified by the taking of her daughter (whom she questions about darkness and light)by the husband. Her son has already been removed from her in the same way.
The final scene, to me, answered all the questions that threaded through the movie. Count the many gifts this wise and brilliant young girl gives to her family and the dawning of that realization on the face of the father, who in spite of his academic understanding is the furthest from the light of all of them. Beautiful and understated. Magic movie moment. 7 out of 10.
And no, the story is not about spelling bees but about enlightenment and wisdom - through words.
However, the rest of the casting is superb, Juliette Binoche as the mother is marvellous in every scene, her sadness permeates both the screen and the viewer and there is a wonderful use of brief flashbacks, broken spectacles and glass, to push her story through and we gain a total understanding of the darkness that overtook her when her parents died in an accident. She has been seeking the light ever since.
Flora Cross, in her first role, is amazing in her understated role of Eliza, the eleven year old spelling whiz. She holds all the wisdom of the family.
Max Minghella plays the son and defies the challenge of some rather awful dialogue to convey the son who loves and understands his sister but is baffled by his controlling father and fragile mother.
Disbelief is again suspended when this son is swept into the Hare Krishnas far too quickly (it was all about lust, you see) and then, just as swiftly, swept out at the speed of light by the furious father.
I found the whole business with the mother, Miriam, ex-French Catholic, Jewish convert, totally believable in her seeking of the light and the final expose, much to the shock and horror of her husband, was beautifully done. Miriam hides from her family, terrified by the taking of her daughter (whom she questions about darkness and light)by the husband. Her son has already been removed from her in the same way.
The final scene, to me, answered all the questions that threaded through the movie. Count the many gifts this wise and brilliant young girl gives to her family and the dawning of that realization on the face of the father, who in spite of his academic understanding is the furthest from the light of all of them. Beautiful and understated. Magic movie moment. 7 out of 10.