Bella

Since the movie was produced by a sometime parishioner at my church, Eduardo Verastegui, who also plays a main character, the place has been a buzz for weeks with encouragement to go see "Bella". I hadn't rushed to see it. I remember thinking the night that I saw "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" that down the hall of the very same theatre was this other, uplifting film and I had taken a psychic bath instead in what was on the edge, if not squarely in the middle of pornography--entertainment without ANY redeeming social value. But this weekend, with no other movies to see, and my usual movie pals indulging in that adult male's regression to childhood, The Three Stooges, I decided it was time to see it. It already is on my list of DVD's to buy, when that time comes.

It is a lovely film. It is gentleness in an ungentle world. It is quiet heroism. It is agape.

Some reviewer said the story was contrived. It would never happen in real life. I beg to differ. I have seen, I have lived, things that others would say "could never happen." I won't ruin it. The story begins with a young man on his way to the big time. And then something takes a turn, he takes responsibility, and his life is forever changed. He loses his passion. But he gets it back, and gives to another in a way that is just purely restorative to the soul of the viewer. This viewer anyway.

It isn't being promoted in Hollywood. That is not surprising. It is subtle in embracing life and a sense of conscience. It runs maybe once a day at the Laemmle, and surely will be gone very soon. It wasn't popular because it wasn't given the chance. But word of mouth will lead it into homes in time.