Bella

I'm not one to recommend movies. But if you are looking for something to watch, Jaime and I just finished our second viewing of the film Bella and I would highly recommend it to you.

Let me give a few reasons why. This is not a movie review, nor critique. Just some things that I can't get out of my mind from this movie. Please note that there are some intense scenes and topics presented in the movie. Watch it before you decide to let your children watch.

1. Struggle. Very often, movies that are cleaned up enough for believers to watch them create a very shallow presentation of the struggle that highlights the movie. In Bella, the struggle is very real. It is intense and gripping. I have often noted before, the Scriptures do not candy-coat life. The words of the Holy Writ acknowledge pain, sorry, temptation, and the struggle to choose between one course or another. I think that a good movie should do the same. Bella communicates the struggle is a powerful way, but never overstates it.

2. Emotion. On my first viewing of the film, I was holding on to myself as I tried to figure out where the movie was taking me. The movie guided me through very real emotions. It was genuine. The second viewing let me relax. I could take in the movie without being scared that it was going to mess up at some point and pander tear-jerking moments or completely fall apart into cheesy nothingness. It cleaned me out emotionally. I simply felt moments that took my breath away in both joy and sorrow. Here, in the second viewing, I also realized that emotions I felt were matched by the actors on the screen. I sat back and saw incredible acting...the kind that makes you wonder how they do it. It was convincing.

3. Beauty. There is beauty in love. Beauty in honest struggle. Beauty in family. And beauty in life.

Before I go on, I must digress and speak of another movie that I watched. It was a "faith"-based movie that I will not name. Parts of it were good, but the rest was overstated, stereotypical, and poorly executed. In one scene, a homeless man is encountered. He is stereotyped as a quirky bum who is always trying to steal things when people aren't looking. The movie gives no empathy and makes me wonder if the directors of the movie have ever been involved in reaching out and loving the homeless people in our communities at all.

One of the shining beautiful moments in Bella revolves around a brief scene with a homeless man on the streets of New York. His character is beautiful in both reality and metaphor. I am thankful for the treatment of this scene in Bella.

4. Purity. The directors did not have resort to found language to communicate anger. They did not have to show flesh to make the actors attractive. It proves that most of Hollywood is either lazy or indulgent when they have to incorporate blood, lust and foul language in order to communicate.

5. I'll save this one. Watch the movie and you will know! Just remember, Bella means "Beautiful".