Beautiful Bella :)

A couple of weeks ago most of us, Lake Wood folks, watched the movie Bella. It was a movie I loved to the bits. There were times when my eyes were almost getting wet.

Simply put, Bella is about ‘beauty’ and ‘people’.

In the beginning of the movie, the seemingly incongruous scene of a blind man selling some simple artwork making a ‘deal’ with Nina, actually, sets theme of the whole movie that life is not about money, about 'beauty' and 'people'.

He asks her if she would buy a piece of art from him, but she says she has no money. He makes a deal with her, he asks her to describe the beauty she sees around her and she having just been fired from her job and also realizing that she was pregnant, goes on to describe the what she sees. Her plain description of the quotidian things of life, translated into a vision of  'beauty' in the mind of  the blind man. All the blind man wanted was to experience ‘beauty’ and ‘people’ to talk to.

Even Manny, the dark handsome brother, the guy who fired Nina, when all is said and done, at the end of the day needs the loving embrace of his brother, Jose, in spite of having fired Jose himself earlier in the day. His hot-headedness not withstanding, he takes the first step to reconciliation by buying a new frying pan for his brother. As the Bible says, reconcile anger before sun goes down, and it shall go fine.

Our hero, Jose, the hot and handsome soccer star turned child slayer turned convict turned chief chef turned the Bella about-to-be-aborted child's Savior is a ‘beauty’ (metaphysical). Even though he unwittingly ran over a child killing her, he feels mortally guilty of inexorably depriving a mother of everything she had in her life.

Even when he flushes out the lettuce in his Chef's kitchen, his guilt causes him to see in it the pattern of the beautiful butterfly the child played with before she was run over by his car. That haunts him and keeps alive in him the need for redemption. He needed to be someone's Savior and here comes Nina wanting to abort her kid.

Nina on the other hand is a person who never had a chance to live. Loosing her father at 12 and having to support her mentally deranged mother all through her teens alienated her from experiencing beauty in her life. And her loosing her job and discovering that very morning that she was also pregnant as well did not help it any further. From past experience, her premonition is that if she would have her kid that would alienate her from any possibility of experience the something good in life. What she needs is a savior, someone who’ll take her burden and allow her chance to be independent at least for once in her life.

Jose’s dad is a simple character who is all about ‘beauty’ of life. Whether it is planting trees or making beautiful lanterns to be taken to the beach or dancing around with his wife or playing football. To him life is all about making it all beautiful for everyone to enjoy life.

Jose’s mom is wise woman who is all about ‘people’. Though she does not approve Jose of having let down his brother Manny for the sake of Nina, she speaks kindly to her and makes her welcome. Being sensitive to Nina’s apprehensions about Manny she even lets her in about the truth that Manny was their foster child. The scene in which Jose hugs his mom and cries for what has become of his life, is touching. Jose knew that he was close to getting his redemption and had to let out the tears he had held within him all these years. 'Cry my boy, cry it all out' says she and holds his head in with her comforting arms.

As the movie progresses, one keeps wondering who Bella is. Jose agrees to be Nina's Savior, he urges her ot have the child and 'commits' to grow her child. And the name of this child is Bella. And thus the movie is called 'Bella'.

The heart of the movie is Jose who when he was about the reach the pinnacle of glory and riches came to experience a heart wrenching reversal of fortunes. He did not blame fate but persevered to make the best of his life though it meant that he had to work as a chef to support his brother. Eventually he got to be the savior who would make life ‘beautiful’ to the beautiful Bella.

All pain and drudgery Jose had to undergo makes ‘beautiful’ sense because of the beautiful Bella. Someone told me that it was a romantic movie. But this beauty is something far beyond romance, it is 'redeeming' love, which is a reflection of God's love for people. After all, every man with a spine, even in his fallen state, can't help but be a reflection of the redeeming love of God.

Its all about beauty and people.

It’s a movie worth watching. I am hunting for its DVD. :)