Bella

This Movie Review Was Requested By Mike and Steve Duquaine

What's It About

This moving film was about a former soccer player Jose (Eduardo Verastegui) who works as a chef at his brother Manny's (Manny Perez) restaurant in New York. When Manny fires Nina (Tammy Blanchard) because she is late, Jose is there to help her. Jose reaches out to her and finds that the reason she was late is because she found out she was pregnant. This strikes passion in Jose that he had lost for a long time and he decides that he must help her to get through this difficult time in her life. The movie follows their relationship and circumstances in a beautiful way. Can you tell that I liked the film?

How'd They Act

Surprisingly, the acting was quite good in this film. It was low budget, but that did not stop them from making the best of what they had. It is obvious that the actors in this film made a great effort to make their performances shine. Jose is played by Eduardo Verastegui and he does no less than superb in this film. Although he has not done many films, he helped to produce Bella and stared in it. He has some TV credits and a couple of other movies, but this is the first time I have seen him. I am sure that he will be in more movies now after his performance here. Nina is played by Tammy Blanchard who has been in only a handful of films, but one of them was The Good Shepherd. I think that her performance here will again be one that will launch a career in acting to new heights. Others in the film did well, but these two were the main ones and did a great job.

Delivery

Who is Alejandro Gomez Monteverde? Well, he is a great writer and director for one(or is that two?). I was nothing short of impressed with rookie director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde who also wrote Bella. The story was great and inspiring and the directing was superb. It is amazing to me when someone is able to make something so great with so little funding. This proves that it does not take a huge budget to make a great film. Bella is glowing with passion, emotion, and laughter. You are crying one moment and laughing another, which is not easy to pull off from a directorial perspective. There was a point in this movie that actually reminds me of Amelie. The sun is glistening and the whimsical music plays while the camera takes you across faces, emotions, and conversations. The saddest point in the movie was absolutely powerful. I almost cried, which is very difficult to achieve with a movie. I try to bring myself into movies often to heighten the emotion, but Bella drew me in without me even noticing. Great directing; I will have to find Waiting For Trains and Bocho to see if Alejandro Gomez Monteverde's other movies are as good as this.

The Real Deal

I paid $17 to see this movie and would do it again. This is the type of movie that makes me want to see every limited release and hard to find film out there and watch it in the theaters to experience the best that a movie can be. The message in this movie was great and the movie shows it in a wonderfully powerful way.

The Skinny Version

Should you see it? Absolutely. 897,032 out of 1,000,000 Stars
Not a Sharon Movie.