Guest critic Rebecca Cusey reviews the new film Bella:

Eduardo Verastegui, a square-jawed leading actor out of Mexico and lead actor in the new movie Bella, had it all. He had conquered the Spanish speaking world, first with Mexican pop group Kairo, then on telenovelas.

Hollywood noticed him, and offers were pouring in for American roles. But Verastegui had a crisis of conscience. He wanted something more than the roles usually offered to Latinos. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest, he said,

I realized that Latinos, since the ’40s and to today, have had negative stereotypes, always the bandito, the criminal, the liar, and if you are good looking, you are the Don Juan, Latin Lover, in other words, the womanizer-liar, who just use women as objects.

So Verastegui jumped at the chance to play Jose in Bella, a movie that has been quietly gaining steam after winning the Peoples Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival.

Jose is a Latin immigrant, part of a family that is strong, loving, prosperous, and proud of their adopted country. Although his family is happy, Jose is haunted by a tragic accident that put an end to his career as a soccer star and left him with a broken heart. He works as a chef in his brother’s restaurant, where he befriends a troubled waitress, Nina (Tammy Blanchard).

Jose steps out of his shell to care for Nina, when no one else notices her problems. For Verastegui, this is a chance to play “the every day hero, the real hero, the man who comes to this country with the spirit of gratitude, to serve to work, a man of integrity, a man who is honest, who is willing to sacrifice everything to help his wife, his children, his friends, you know. A real man.”

A real man, indeed. Jose turns the idea of a hero on its head, or perhaps right side up. Jose’s strength comes from his compassion and integrity. Tragedy has wounded him, but has not made him bitter, angry, or self-destructive, like so many modern heroes.

He is more Jean Valjean than Dirty Harry. When he sees a need, he strives to meet it. Jose is not a metrosexual, or an emotional guy in touch with his feminine side. Instead, he knows the highest call of the strong is to care for those weaker than himself.

The movie has a lot of other things going for it. Jose’s extended family is vibrant, caring, and fun. The script is written with realistic vulnerability and rawness, and Verastegui and Blanchard turn in excellent performances.

And it ends in a resolution that is inspiring without being sappy, a truly difficult feat.

Bella opens Friday, October 26.

Links: www.bellathemovie.com

http://www.bellathemovie.com/resources/news/archives/157 (Seacrest inteview)