Take someone you love (or would like to love you) to see the opening of Bella this weekend. It will be on some 800 screens, which is a nice number, but to get it shown in out of the way places (like Seattle!) it needs a big first weekend success. So you’ll be doing the rest of us, as well as yourself, a favor by going this Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
You won’t be sorry. It is a gorgeous, surprising, life-affirming story that confounds the usual Hollywood tropes. It’s hero, Eduardo Verastegui (“Veras-teg-wee”) is a Mexican media heart-throb making his Hollywood debut. You’re surely going to hear much more from him after this.
I saw the film a couple of months ago at a special screening and was stunned by its fine quality. So, apparently, was the Toronto Film Festival, where it won a surprising award last year. I won’t give away the story, but let’s just say that it is not the sort of cynical and downbeat fare that many mainstream reviewers like. Well, you can’t trust them.
Trust me, instead. This could be an important film. It definitely is an enjoyable one.
Check it out here.