There’s a good picture out right now that most will benefit from seeing. Titled Bella, it’s about irreversible moments in our lives and deals with the question of adoption versus abortion. It pulls no punches in making its point.
Here’s the gist of the movie: (By the way, the word bella is Spanish for “beautiful” and is pronounced “bay-ya.”) José is a young Latino man who is head chef at the New York restaurant owned by Manny, his materialistic, slave-driving brother. Nina works at the restaurant but has been missing work days because of her morning sickness; she is unmarried and pregnant. When Manny fires her, Nina is faced with the excruciating dilemma of being out of work and with child. Her immediate thought is to have an abortion, believing that she is not ready to raise a child and not wanting to put a child through the difficulties of life with a single mother. Aware of the situation, José walks off the job to befriend Nina, persuading her to spend the day with him. He asks Nina whether she would consider having the baby and putting it up for adoption, to which she says no. José doesn’t berate Nina but simply takes her to his parents’ house, a place characterized by a warm, loving, and unhurried atmosphere. But why is José so anxious to help Nina? The answer to that question is seen in a series of flashbacks to a time several years ago when José was an up-and-coming soccer star. He was on his way to an award ceremony when he was involved in a tragic accident. This changed everything in his life, including his attitude toward himself and others.
Bella is not an explicitly Christian film, but we can strongly feel God’s presence within it. In their day together, for instance, José and Nina encounter a blind man who has a sign saying, “God closed my eyes. Now I can see.” At the evening meal in the house of José’s parents, his younger brother offers a touching blessing in Spanish and asks his non-Latina fiancée to repeat it after him. Above all, José and his parents walk their Christian talk. Star and co-producer Eduardo Verastegui had this to say about his film (excerpted from the review of Bella in Plugged In Online): “What I’d love to see happen with this film is to someday have this 12-year-old knock on my door and say that her mother was going to have an abortion. But she saw this film. That would be my Oscar.”
Bella is rated PG-13 for thematic elements. There is no bad language. Go and see it; you will be uplifted.
My Rating: 3 ¼ stars
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