The tagline for the movie BELLA proposes that one person can change another’s life forever.  Writer/director infuses this premise into the story of its two main leads, Jose (Eduardo Veratesgui) and Nina (Tammy Blanchard).  They work together in Jose’s brother Manny’s (Manny Perez) restaurant.  She gets fired for being late and he takes off after her thus pissing off poor Manny.  Since the writer/director is male it is of no surprise that it is Nina who changes the life of Jose. 

The film begins with a scene at the beach with Jose looking on.  Flashbacks tell the story of Jose’s encounter with Nina.  Lots of problems in the script include loopholes in the plot, shifts in narrative, too many coincidences and unexplained reasons why characters act or behave in certain ways.  Worst still, director Monteverde has the viewer side with a girl with an unwanted pregnancy without showing her lover and has (the viewer) go against Manny who is a hardworking citizen who supports his foster family.  The film grows tiresome after a while, while heading in too many directions.

Somehow, BELLA succeeds as a Mexican melodrama crowd pleaser.  For one, BELLA won the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award.  Still, it took a while before the film finally opens in Canada – which has to say something about the distributors not knowing what to do with a flawed film that general audiences like.  It would be interesting to see how this film fares at the box-office.