This is an excellent film, provided you don't mind crying! The acting is superb, particularly Akeelah battling to overcome the heavily stacked odds against ever succeeding. As the story progresses more and more of her run-down community rally in support, and family and other with relationships are very well developed.
The film also draws on a positive view of personal worth and interesting background on words and spelling. The filming is of a high standard, and involvement is progressively developed, so that even if you have zero interest in spelling bees you feel mounting excitement and tension as the story unfolds. (After seeing this, and possibly thinking some of it is just too good to be true, you may want to see the actual story in the film called "Spellbound".)