[Frederica-l] Christianity Today: "Bella" review

[Frederica at aol.com]

This is a review for Christianity Today Movies; it's on their website at 
_http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/2007/bella.html_ 
(http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/2007/bella.html) 
 
and on mine at
 
_http://www.frederica.com/writings/bella.html_ 
(http://www.frederica.com/writings/bella.html) 
 
 
***
 
 
The energy in the kitchen of an elegant Mexican restaurant in Manhattan is 
cranking up steadily, as the staff braces for the noon rush. One waitress, Nina, 
is running late, which is becoming a habit. She dashes in at the last minute, 
but Manny, the owner, tells her this is one time too many, and fires her on 
the spot.  
As Nina storms out, the head chef, Manny's brother Jose (a mysteriously 
tragic guy, peeking out through a forest of beard and hair), follows her outside to 
make sure she's OK. When he learns that she is pregnant, he walks away from 
the restaurant and spends the day at her side, compelled for unknown reasons to 
try to help her. Over the course of the day, their conversations, encounters, 
and decisions will send changes rippling through many lives, over many years. 
 
I can't say much more about the plot without giving away spoilers, but rest 
assured that "Bella" is well worth seeing for yourself. It's a quiet film, 
carried along mostly on the conversation between Nina and Jose. Nina makes it 
clear early on that she will not have the baby. Her situation is one all too sadly 
common, and the reasons that she gives for being unable to raise a child, or 
even to bear one to place for adoption, are all too familiar. Jose does not 
try to argue with her-but he listens. And gradually Nina discloses more and more 
of her life, so we can see what steps brought her to that day. Jose has some 
history of his own to reveal, as well.  
It's not exactly an action movie, but it's not all talk either. As Nina and 
Jose make their way through New York they encounter plenty that is interesting 
to watch. They look eccentric themselves, he in his white chef's jacket, and 
her in the gaudy flowered dress that is her waitress uniform. "Bella" is always 
inviting to watch; shots are framed and color is used in ways that are 
creative and consistently effective, without being show-offy. The sound track ranges 
from Rosemary Clooney and Nina Simone to steamy dance music (Spanish) and 
scratchy-voiced sincerity (English), and it's all right on target.  
I also admired the way time is layered in the film. We see scenes that occur 
both before and after the single day that Jose and Nina spend together, but we 
don't know how those scenes fit into the bigger story. In some movies this 
kind of thing is used in a flashy way, to startle viewers and hopefully impress 
them, but here they're part of an organic larger story. As they fall into 
place it feels very natural; these time shifts serve the story, rather than 
dominate it for zip and dazzle purposes.  
This is a first film for director Alejandra Gomez Monteverdi, and the two 
stars, Tammy Blanchard and Eduardo Verastegui, are also new to Hollywood. 
Blanchard carries the intense role of Nina gracefully, applying restraint in a role 
that could have easily turned melodramatic. Even in a scene where she must to 
turn on a dime from angry to sobbing, Blanchard makes it smooth. She's 
immensely believable; her Nina is no drama-school concoction, but a likeable, ordinary 
person facing a heartbreaking situation.  
Her costar, Eduardo Verastegui is a good match for her, rendering Jose not so 
much brooding as shipwrecked. Verastegui is an interesting character in his 
own right. For years he was a hugely successful soap opera star and singer, 
"the Brad Pitt of Mexico." But after experiencing a deeper commitment to his 
Roman Catholic faith, Verastegui began to regret his part in reinforcing 
adulterous "Latin lover" stereotypes. In a speech this past May to the annual pro-life 
Rose Dinner in Ottawa, Verastegui said that some of his earlier work had sent 
messages that are "poisoning society." He went on, "It broke my heart...I 
realized that I was offending God."  He summed up, "I wasn't born to be famous or 
rich. I was born to know and love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ."   
http://www.catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=24088 
In a chance encounter at his church, he met movie producer Leo Severino, and 
they formed Metanoia Films in order to produce movies that can persuasively 
present an alternative view ("metanoia" is the biblical Greek word for 
"repentance"). Some Christians would find it tempting to make a blaringly obvious, 
preachy movie, but Verastegui and Severino have wisely opted for quality instead. 
"Bella" is beautiful to watch and hard to resist.  
About the only flaw in the film became clear to me as the end drew near: I 
saw that the characters just were never going to get any deeper than they are. 
It's a good story and the ending wasn't what I expected-but by that point I 
expected something more or less along those lines. It's a bit pat, I'd say. The 
characters harbor no ambiguities; when the credits roll, we can feel sure that 
we've learned all there is to know about them. Despite that minor 
disappointment, the ending still brought tears in my eyes, and left me feeling awed and 
grateful for the beauty of family. I can see why the film won a standing ovation 
and the Toronto Film Festival, and also the festival's People's Choice Award. 
If "Bella" affects others the way it did me, that's only the first in a long 
line of awards that are coming its way. 
 
********
Frederica Mathewes-Green
www.frederica.com



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ctcnet.net/pipermail/frederica-l/attachments/20071028/fb04ed08/attachment.htm