Two Words, One Answer.
Verástegui
 Eduardo Verastegui $9.49 What a beautilful voice! I'm so glad I heard about the cd and downloaded it! Wow.  Bella $14.98 Bella is supposed to be a heartwarming film about love, redemption and family. A chef, and former soccer star, Jose, makes a fateful decision to follow a waitress who has just been fired from his brother's restaurant, changing both of their lives forever. Although the reason he follows her is never made clear, eventually you figure out that he is looking for a way to redeem himself for a tragedy that has ruined his life. The film's message is fairly clear--love of family wins in the end--but how it gets there is a mystery. One minute, Jose and Nina are sitting on the beach getting to know one another, the next minute it's years later and everything has worked out just fine. How was the fundamental crisis resolved? Shouldn't we have seen the drama? The neat, and entirely too pat, ending seemed like it was pulled out of thin air. Jose's family was also pulled out of thin air. The mother is Latina (Mexican)and a fluent speaker of English. The father is a non-English speaking Puerto Rican. Two of the sons speak English fluently, while the third, Jose, has a heavy accent. So, where were the kids raised? If in the States, then all three would be fluent. If in Mexico, then all three would have a Spanish accent. I have the feeling that the producers thought, "Hah! Dumb gringos! They'll never know the difference!" (And, while we're on the subject of dumb gringos, why does a Mexican soccer star have an Argentinian agent? Mexicans are entirely too nationalistic for that kind of shenanigan.) The "Watch me pull rabbit out of my hat!" character of this film is no doubt due to the fact the Verastegui, a devout Catholic, is on a one-man mission to "save" Hollywood. He had originally volunteered to do missionary work in the jungles of Brazil (why is it always Brazil?), but then decided that Hollywood, that hotbed of sin, was more of a challenge. The fact that this film was basically propaganda, in the original sense of the word (to propagate the faith), accounts for why the acting was so bad, the script so minimal, and the plot so contrived. But I will say that if the gorgeous, intense and thoroughly sexy Verastegui ever does manage to produce a good movie, then get in line, because there will probably be a rush to the confessional.  Bella $9.99 Bella is supposed to be a heartwarming film about love, redemption and family. A chef, and former soccer star, Jose, makes a fateful decision to follow a waitress who has just been fired from his brother's restaurant, changing both of their lives forever. Although the reason he follows her is never made clear, eventually you figure out that he is looking for a way to redeem himself for a tragedy that has ruined his life. The film's message is fairly clear--love of family wins in the end--but how it gets there is a mystery. One minute, Jose and Nina are sitting on the beach getting to know one another, the next minute it's years later and everything has worked out just fine. How was the fundamental crisis resolved? Shouldn't we have seen the drama? The neat, and entirely too pat, ending seemed like it was pulled out of thin air. Jose's family was also pulled out of thin air. The mother is Latina (Mexican)and a fluent speaker of English. The father is a non-English speaking Puerto Rican. Two of the sons speak English fluently, while the third, Jose, has a heavy accent. So, where were the kids raised? If in the States, then all three would be fluent. If in Mexico, then all three would have a Spanish accent. I have the feeling that the producers thought, "Hah! Dumb gringos! They'll never know the difference!" (And, while we're on the subject of dumb gringos, why does a Mexican soccer star have an Argentinian agent? Mexicans are entirely too nationalistic for that kind of shenanigan.) The "Watch me pull rabbit out of my hat!" character of this film is no doubt due to the fact the Verastegui, a devout Catholic, is on a one-man mission to "save" Hollywood. He had originally volunteered to do missionary work in the jungles of Brazil (why is it always Brazil?), but then decided that Hollywood, that hotbed of sin, was more of a challenge. The fact that this film was basically propaganda, in the original sense of the word (to propagate the faith), accounts for why the acting was so bad, the script so minimal, and the plot so contrived. But I will say that if the gorgeous, intense and thoroughly sexy Verastegui ever does manage to produce a good movie, then get in line, because there will probably be a rush to the confessional. |
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