Bella: This Time The Winner Is... A Love Story.

Bella
Directed by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde
Lionsgate

Name me a film recently released that has so beautifully reintroduced family values, tradition and redemption to an audience all inside of two hours? No film this year has even chipped away at the emotional iceberg of Bella, a story of love that changes the lives of three people forever.



As of late, too many films have shown how far someone can go the edge of the emotional spectrum. In The Machinist, we saw Trevor Reznik go the nether regions of human guilt, while in Away From Her we witnessed a 40-year-old marriage dissolve into a distant memory on account of Alzheimer's Disease. But these characters never come back. They stay there, at the raggedy edge. There is a small element of resolve with the above-stated characters, but nothing close to the extent director Monteverde explores.



What astonishes me is the unflinching surface of the main character, Jose (Eduardo Verástegui). At the start of the film, he is clean-shaven and hopeful - but in ten minutes, his chiseled face is now bearded, setting up a barrier that only he can break down. But to watch a man punish himself on the inside is often a difficult task. Most flawed characters with skeletons in their closets have some form of visual downside; alcoholism, smoking, cussing, not paying rent; the list could go on. But Eduardo Verástegui's inner pain is felt every moment you see him.

Bella jumps here and there to build the plot through flashbacks, and does so with ease. The situation that Nina (Tammy Blanchard) has gotten herself into is one easily accepted by audiences. Her own personal journey throughout this film is one of accepting herself and learning that regrets are something you can never change.



We see a glimpse into a Latin-American family, who accept the cards they've been dealt and live life as life; not as a job, not as a hand-me-down lifestyle. It is their own life, and they run with it and with grace. Bella is another diamond in the rough film. It ran the festival circuit and has gained a lot of well-earned press. The best journey is the one you can take to your video store and pick up this gem!!




Bella is available on DVD May 6th.