Bella
As far as films go, grief is the new black (eg, Reservation Road, Things We Lost in the Fire, Gone Baby Gone). Everyone’s wearing it, and often on their sleeves. That’s certainly the case with this slight indie about two people who find each other in their separate suffering. Jose (Eduardo Verástegui) works as a chef for his brother Manny (Manny Perez), but we learn in flashbacks that he was a rising soccer star. How did Jose get from soccer balls to sauté pans? Once screenwriters Monteverde and Patrick Million have teased us with a mystery, they get down to some actual plot.
Tightly wound Manny fires waitress Nina (Tammy Blanchard) when she shows up late. But we know, because we’ve been clubbed with the “woman agonizing over pregnancy test” bit, that she’s got a good reason. Sensitive Jose follows her, and the two spend a day together, during which they do a lot of soul searching and speechifying (Jose asks, “How was it dealing with your dad’s death?” like a cut-rate therapist). The trauma that ruined his soccer career is revealed in an annoyingly slow narrative striptease.
Despite adequate actors, the characters are all so broadly drawn that it’s hard to get involved in their emotional lives. If you’re going to work the grief angle, the audience has to want to cry along with the characters.
Hank Sartin
Bella opens Thursday 13.
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Hank Sartin's review is spot on, even if his rating is too generous. This film is shot beautifully and has some real production value. It's clear it was a work of love. Despite this, the film suffers from a very poor script. The cloying reveal of the source of the former soccer star's agony is extremely clumsy. Basically, the film is a long introduction to two characters who have experienced sadness and grief. It's two people, not very convincing characters, at various locations telling each other and the audience things about themselves for no reason. It's an earnest movie that clearly has good intentions, but it's a fundamentally flawed one, whose script lacks conflict and tension. The 'dark secret' isn't revealed until 50 minutes in. For much of that time, the film seems to be content to show various iconic settings in and around NYC (riding the subway, walking through a street fair, talking to a homeless man...) By then, the audience loses all interest. The film and its characters don't give the viewer any reason to care. It's a shame because the character of the fallen soccer hero is one that holds real possibility for drama. An independent movie should show some truth. This movie fails to do that. How this film managed to cross the Pacific and reach Hong Kong screens while far more worthy and interesting films never manage to do so is a real mystery.
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