This car crash film ends with a shrug

Published 2:40 pm Thursday, November 15, 2007

Think of “Bella” as a kind of light version of “21 Grams,” another drama from a Mexican director that revolves mysteriously around a car accident. But the comparisons end there.

The searing inquiry of “21 Grams” is nowhere to be found in “Bella,” which settles for a much more conventional TV-movie look at loss and resolution.

Much of the film takes place around a Manhattan restaurant, where the chef, Jose (Eduardo Verastegui), has buried himself in work, following a tragedy. His once-promising career as a soccer player was derailed years earlier, and he is now a somber, heavily-bearded loner.

But one day, his heart goes out to Nina (Tammy Blanchard), a waitress at the restaurant, who gets fired the same day she realizes she’s pregnant. They spend the day together, visiting his parents at one point, and sorting through her decision about whether or not to keep the baby.

Absolutely nothing happens in this movie that could be described as a surprise. From the first few scenes, we have a pretty good idea of how it’s going to come down.

The only odd wrinkle is the look of Jose, who appears to be auditioning for a touring company of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Soulful actor Eduardo Verastegui has been a major Latin heartthrob on screen and in song, and he certainly has presence, even if he doesn’t say much.

Tammy Blanchard wowed people with her knockout performance as the young Judy Garland in a TV-movie. In fact she still seems to be doing Garland: In every scene she goes for broke, as though she doesn’t know how to hold anything back. It makes Nina more neurotic than understandable.

A nice cast, including Manny Perez as Jose’s high-strung brother, fills out the movie. Offhand use of real New York locations also helps; the film is well-produced and will undoubtedly find an audience, especially with Verastegui’s fans (although the movie is mostly in English, not Spanish).

But director Alejandro Monteverde plays it very safe. The restaurant scenes are the best part of “Bella,” suggesting that real life, not spiritual uplift, might be this filmmaker’s strong suit.