Bella

There aren't many movies made today that portray true love. This movie is about more than romance. It's about self-sacrificing love. Agape.

A young woman and her male co-worker walk through the busy streets of New York City. As they approach a homeless man selling paper animals, they notice he is blind. The homeless man asks the woman to describe what she sees on the street in return for a free paper animal. She looks back and begins cynically illustrating what is going on. People are busy; they're hectic; they're like a moving clock, all moving fast and doing their own thing, not noticing one another.

"I wish I could see that," says the smiling blind man.

This, in a scene, describes what director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde is driving at throughout Bella. In this world, everyone has multiple options. There is often the view that we can look at the world as dark and full of despair and focus on what we don't have, or we can look at the world through the lens of joy, opting to view our daily struggles as a chance for hope to find us.

Bella is a lovely film, which, although at times heavily character-driven, leaves the viewer better off for having watched it. Some might consider it a political or agenda-driven film. I didn't see it that way at all. To me, Bella represents another voice in a world, which largely projects one option, and this new voice is one that refreshingly offers hope to everyone in a very non-intrusive way.

You can make a case for this being considered a God film. If you did, however, you would first have to admit that this is the first such film done in a way that leaves us victimized neither by a Christian agenda nor by the pathetic waves of poorly crafted screenplay and underlying thought. For me, I was actually happy when I finished watching Bella, and considering the new barrage of independent films with dark subtext, that is a rarity.

Bella is a story of two ordinary people whose hearts have been wounded by life, circumstances, and disappointments. They are from very different backgrounds. She is from a home filled with sorrow, sadness and regret. She had few advantages in life. He is from a home filled with love and joy, and had many advantages - yet his heart is shut off from his life.

The story is about what happens when one broken hearted person takes the time to care about and for another person's broken heart. Not only does the heart of the one in need begin to heal, the heart of the hero begins to heal as well.

I do not want to give away details of the movie (I like to watch movies without knowing what will happen next). It is not difficult to predict the story line of this film, but it is beautiful to watch it unfold.

It is rare to find a movie that is truly family friendly today - this one is just that.

'Bella' has alot of depth. It's not a light-hearted bubble gum film.
It wasn't at all what I thought it would be and it sure left an impression providing insights into my own judgments of certain characters throughout the film.....the korean quick shop owner,...the blind man on the street.....Manny.....Jose's ex-manager.....
Not many movies make you do that. Two themes I picked up on are,... You never know what people are going through, and ...Life is precious.
It was a film that provokes discussion among those who have watched it.

I watched this with my 16-year old daughter, who is adopted. We both loved it.