Bee Season

PG-13

Released Nov 11, 2005

1 hr. 45 min.

Drama

List

44%

108 Reviews

Tomatometer

35%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In the Naumann household, 11-year-old Eliza (Flora Cross) feels she has little to offer in a family of overachievers. All that changes when she wins the spelling bee, much to the surprise of everyone. Now her father (Richard Gere), a professor of Judaism, devotes attention to her as fanatically as he does to his religious studies. With this dynamic shift, family issues, including those of Eliza's mother (Juliette Binoche) and brother (Max Minghella), come to light.

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Critics Consensus

Bee Season is an intelligent, but frustratingly distant and diffuse drama about family dysfunction.

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KB B

It was pretty compelling but there was too much Jewish mysticism spouted off by the Dad. It's an interesting watch but I didn't like the abrupt ending.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/30/23

Full Review

gerald h

what a mess. what a pretentious, self-contented mess. PLUS: this movie has been translated into many other languages to be shown worldwide. the movie´s point is the girl´s willful mistaking of Y and WHY. there is no - absolutely no - connection between Y and WHY in other languages. only in english. so the point can´t be understood in other languages because of the lack of any pronounciation similarities. as example: Y translated to german is YPSILON, and WHY translated to german is WARUM.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

william s

intelligent and off putting at the same time.Good performances and yet quite bland.As a whole uneven to say the least.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Can you spell horrid? I can. B E E S E A S O N.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Possibly the worst Richard Gere movie ever and that's saying something. The movie is not really about spelling bees or mysticism or anything else. Terrible.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A movie with more promise than it lives up to. Everyone gives fine performances, but the story and character development just don't provide much that's emotionally compelling. Juliette Binoche's character is just confusing and unclear until 2/3 of the way through, which was frustrating as I watched it. And Flora Cross' 11-year old Eliza is not fully believable in her seemingly continual state of pouting and sadness. There doesn't seem to really be anything for her to be that sad about. And the mystical/magical elements in the film just distract from what could have been a more straight forward drama in the hands of a better writer. But the cinematography and editing are interesting as always with films from McGehee and Siegel.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

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Scott McGehee

Director

David Siegel

Director

Richard Gere

Saul Naumann

Juliette Binoche

Miriam Naumann

Flora Cross

Eliza Naumann

Max Minghella

Aaron Naumann

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Nell Minow

Movie Mom

Rated: A-

Feb 18, 2012

Full Review

Empire Magazine

Rated: 2/5

Apr 1, 2006

Full Review

Kimberley Jones

Austin Chronicle

This is second-rate Hallstrm, drama plus whimsy that, when rubbed together, creates not friction and fire, but a nubbing-down of both elements.

Rated: 2/5

Dec 6, 2005

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

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.

Rated: 3.5/4.0

Sep 2, 2020

Full Review

Robert Julian

Bay Area Reporter

Bee Season is an intelligent, mesmerizing, thought-provoking work, so extraordinary in its content and presentation it is hard to believe it ever got made.

May 9, 2020

Full Review

Chelsea Bain

Boston Herald

Rated: 2/4

Oct 21, 2006

Full Review

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Synopsis

In the Naumann household, 11-year-old Eliza (Flora Cross) feels she has little to offer in a family of overachievers. All that changes when she wins the spelling bee, much to the surprise of everyone. Now her father (Richard Gere), a professor of Judaism, devotes attention to her as fanatically as he does to his religious studies. With this dynamic shift, family issues, including those of Eliza's mother (Juliette Binoche) and brother (Max Minghella), come to light.

Director: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Screenwriter: Scott McGehee, David Siegel, Naomi Foner
Distributor: Fox
Production Co: Fox Searchlight
Rating: PG-13 (Scene of Sensuality|Brief Strong Language|Thematic Elements)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 11, 2005, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 1, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.2M
Sound Mix: Surround

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