Spellbound

I just spent the last ten minutes of this movie crying.
I remember freshmen year in 2003 talking to a girl down my hall and somehow the conversation turned to favorite movies ( this may have been in the first few weeks of getting to know you-ness) and she replied Spellbound. Being completely in my own world as I am sometimes, I thought she was talking about the 1945 Ingrid Bergman/Gregory Peck/ Alfred Hitchcock film ( I'm probably the only person under 30 who's mind would first go there) Anyway she was rightly confused and told me no, its a movie about the spelling bee.
And now I know why.
IFC just showed Spellbound and being as I had never seen it, it being one of those movies that I wouldn't actually remember to pick out, but if it was already on... But it is such a brilliant and emotional and suspenseful movie. The kids were all such real and normal kids and it made me remember how awkward we all were at that age and so I grew emotionally attached to them and wanted to see them do well. None of the parents were pushy or domineering and also seemed like genuinely good people and when the film actually showed the competition I was right there with them hanging on every letter and surprising myself a few times by clapping with joy when one of the kids spelled a word correctly, and being incredibly sad when they got it wrong (except for the ADD kid and the one who could be a serial killer, though I did like both contestant's parents.) And though I knew they all couldn't win it was still so sad to hear that damn bell (which tended to ring whenever I spelled a word along with them and was so confident I got it right.)
But I know the kids will all be alright, and do great things; I don't suspect that many spelling bee contestants go onto a life of crime, so that makes me happy (and I am almost certain Georgie is going to become some sort of televangelist; he already has the suit for it) [you can see what become of them at the wikipedia site, but please don't go if you haven't seen the film; its one of those movies that loses much of its power and greatness if you already know the end.] And when you see this movie (as you should) if you don't care about them all then you don't have a heart. Ah it made me so happy! The ending is so amazing...Okay I need to stop crying now...damn hormones

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