There are events that change lives forever. For Jose, that was the day he was on his way to sign a multi-million dollar contract to play soccer. In a moment, everything changed. For Nina, it was reading the pregnancy test. After confirming her pregnancy, she is late to work and fired. In Bella, these two people spend a day together sharing the joys and pains of the day, and this day becomes something that will bring about something new and renewing for them both.
Jose and Nina know each other from work. They both work at Jose’s brother’s restaurant—Jose as chef, Nina as a waitress. After Nina is fired, Jose walks out to make sure she is all right. They stroll the city. They take a trip to Jose’s family’s home at the beach. They spend the night sleeping on the beach. And finally, they reach an agreement on what the future needs to be for them both.
It is certainly possible to see the way Nina’s pregnancy plays out in this film to be either pro-choice or pro-life. But the film really isn’t about abortion, although that issue is a key part of the film. Rather it is about the potential for the things we do to bring good or bad changes into our lives, and the ways we can overcome the mistakes of our past.
There is something of a minimalist plot to the film. We see bits in flashback and flashes of the future. Through it all we get a sense of what happened, but I came away from the film without a sense of knowing the story. There is just too much left out to make the film as full as it needs to be. There are too many relationships that are not developed to the point of giving us any insight into why these people act the way they do. Even though the ending of the film has a certain heartwarming and endearing quality, we don’t really understand why or how these things came to be.
What is gratifying about the film is the caring relationship Jose shares with Nina. We really don’t know if they have been anything other than co-workers prior to the day they spend together. But Jose responds to her obvious need and distress. In this he is a contrast to his brother, Manny. Manny’s passion is for business, and he focuses on the restaurant. He claims to cherish his employees, but really knows nothing about them other than a few surface facts. Jose, on the other hand, has a passion for cooking and, even more, sharing with his co-workers. When Jose makes a special dish for the employees’ lunch, Manny is upset because such a meal could have been a special for the restaurant. The contrast also plays out in the way they relate to Nina. Manny doesn’t even want to know why she is late. Jose leaves everything behind to comfort her.
The film is also heartwarming in offering us a hope that we can overcome our past to find something new. Even lives that seem to lie in ruin can be redeemed. It’s just hard to really buy that redemption with so much left unsaid in the film.
