Now that I’ve read enough negative reviews of the movie Bella, let me give you my own.

My friends from St. Mary’s University and I, along with my parents and 13-year-old sister, went out together to see the movie this past Friday night. Yes, poor university students, many of whom are looking forward to those high-paying ministry and service jobs, decided to spare $7 worth of Raman to go see this film.

When it was over, we stood up from the front row and looked at each other tellingly with wide grins on our faces. “Wow! That felt like it was only 15 minutes long!” I said to my sister. We couldn’t believe what an experience we’d been through.

I’ve read complaints about the non-linear presentation, about the Spanish/English dialogue, about the “cultural inconsistencies”, about the characters being “difficult to emotionally invest in” – and I don’t see any reason to complain! I loved the non-linear presentation because that’s the way most people reflect on their lives. I especially appreciated the Spanish/English dialogue because that’s the way my dad’s side of the family really talks! It made the film so much more real to me as a youth of Hispanic descent. I loved that Jose was a Mexican offering a New Yorker some paella – isn’t that what New York, and really America, is all about? Who are you to say a man of Mexican descent can’t enjoy some good paella?

Bella’s characters were, in a sense, mysterious. We don’t know their backgrounds, life stories, expectations, dreams…but we only met them an hour and a half ago! I saw them as so much more real, for this reason, than any Brad Pitt or Meryl Streep character. They were introduced into my life a short while ago, and like any other new friend of mine, I was on a journey with people whom I had only just met.

Bella never promised to be a cookie-cutter Hollywood production. It promised to offer audiences something different. My friends and I wholeheartedly believe it did, and would certainly pay good money to see it again.