"Bella" (2006) - Movie Review

I do not know whether it’s me or the movies, but in the past two weeks, lot of these I cannot really connect with it. I was impressed with “Lions with Lambs” and “American Gangster” but not moved by it. That means am I losing touch with the sense of artistic eye I have for the movies? “Bella” appealed but did not reach out for the inner soul of mine. It had its time of momentous success and it even had me before the last couple of minutes. Then I realized, it is not me but are the films. I felt relieved and “Bella” by its end of failure brought me back to where I am. Too bad for the movie, good for me.

It is one of those days on the busy weekday of New York. Jose (Eduardo Verástegui), a man covering his face with beard and long hair is working at his brother Manny’s (Manny Perez) Mexican restaurant. Nina (Tammy Blanchard) finds herself fired by Manny for being late. Jose has a past which has pushed to coax Nina as he realizes that she is pregnant. And it turns out to be that day where nightmares are confessed and lost love is seen in bright light.

It is a surprise that I have not seen films which backgrounds the busy and chaotic New York City life for an emotional feature. For that director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde gets kudos from me. In fact when these two people suspended from their daily routines takes a ride to the outskirts of the city, it is even more rejuvenating. I have always mentioned in my reviews the dulled up week day afternoons and its melancholic boredom tailoring to the concept for a movie. In “Bella”, it carries that feeling but for a reason we are happy about it. Mainly due to the light hearted Jose who actually carries the heaviest burden day to day.

Jose is living the horrible nightmare every day in every little fractions of time. His life would have been a life of unimaginable riches, success and mainly without the pain of the memory haunting perennial and piercing its sharp pressure in him. One of the greatest suffering for a human being is the ability to not forgive him. Playing the event and looking at it differently and diversely to find some answers seems impossible for Jose who denies forgiving himself and would never go about that whole ordeal of convincing. Till that point we know there is a tragedy in his life and we know the details based on the assumption but Nina is a frustrated mystery woman. Having been fired by Jose’s brother and her dealing with the pregnancy burgles her mind of peace. Since we do not know much about the relationship between these two, the film spins on its own of trust and friendship to flex it as it wants to.

I liked “Bella” for the most part. There is a sweet scene when a blind man offering a paper frog to Nina asks in turn for a day description instead of money. She starts off blank and bland. She looks around and herself to turn out the frustration and how careless the city life not stopping for it. The blind man at the end of it gives the answer to her. Similarly the cheery scenes of family at Jose’s parent’s house are another example. And finally the truce of Manny and Jose is well shot too.

With pleasant and casual emotional drama how the end tipped me off from the charts of good film to a mediocre one? When the title name does not come in the character of the movie and there is a question of whether to have a child or not, anybody can take a guess of what is the end. I did not mind the predictability as the independent nature of it is mainly the emotions than plot. Plot is a background and the drama of things happening as chores are given in a platter which is real and moving too. This is the very heart of independent cinema. Hence there is no audience expecting a sweet end of everyone holding hands. Independent represents poetry on the screen. It does not need an end of converging points. In fact trying to tie the knot sometimes bluntly is a transgression in this form of films. “Bella” is warm, soothing and dramatic but also tries to answer itself more than the audience would really want.