Bella Turns on the Waterworks

Here's the upshot: Bella made me cry.

Okay, not quite. But it did make my eyes water.

That doesn't bode much better for my masculinity, but it does testify to the effectiveness of this moving film.

The story focuses on Jose, a once clean-shaven soccer star reduced to wearing a scraggly beard while slaving away in the kitchen of his brother's restaurant following a tragic accident that drains all his passion for soccer. Meanwhile Nina, a waitress at his brother's restaurant, gets fired for a recent streak of calling in sick and coming in late. Jose leaves work to console her and discovers she's not just "late" in regard to work-she's pregnant. When they have dinner and Jose orders something that he says has all the nutrients someone having a child would need, Nina responds, "Who said I was having a child?"

"You did," he replies.

"No, I said I was pregnant."

Nina argues that she's not ready to have a child, that she's not sure she even likes children and that she's broke. "I can't even take care of myself," she laments, "how am I going to take care of a kid?"

When Jose asks if she's thought about adoption she replies, "I can't carry a living thing inside my body for nine months and then leave it on some stranger's doorstep."

The movie sets up a gentle conflict between Jose and Nina, the former encouraging the latter to let this life into the world while she denies the virtue of doing so. Jose never condemns Nina for her decision; he encourages her to make what he thinks is the right choice, and he does so solely out of a growing love for her.

Later, Jose's parents invite Nina to dinner. The family laughs, smiles, and talks energetically over their meal, making Nina feel at home. In the course of the conversation, Nina learns that Jose's brother Manny was adopted. "I think the only thing special about my three sons is how Manny came to us," the beaming mother says. Seeing Jose's loving family offers the first real blow to Nina's preconceived notions about adoption.