| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 18, 2011

The film is nicely shot in New York and subtitled "One moment can change your life forever". There's not a moment here likely to change ours.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 6, 2010

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 2, 2010

This is not a weepy, but a story about healing, forgiveness and redemption.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 11, 2008

From the quiet performances to the sensitive direction, everything about this movie is convincing except the very story that drives it.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 10, 2008

Corn smothered in queso, this sentimental hokum sticks in your throat.

| Original Score: F | Feb 3, 2008

Bella is certainly a sweet, life-affirming picture, but it's just not authentic or captivating enough to justify its wildly concocted scenario.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 9, 2007

Alejandro Gomez Monteverde's first feature may have more heart than head, but it's also just as interesting for what it leaves out of its romantic story as for what it retains.

| Nov 9, 2007

It wants to answer the questions it's clearly too timid to ask, but the questions are always so much more interesting.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 9, 2007

While Alejandro Gomez Monteverde's film has its heart in the right place, its effectiveness is ultimately hampered by its awkward and maudlin execution.

Full Review | Nov 9, 2007

[A] defiantly unsubtle, structurally clunky specimen.

| Original Score: C | Nov 7, 2007

Bella is a movie that wears its bleeding heart on its sleeve and loves its characters to distraction.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 26, 2007

A tearjerker that earns its sobs with heartfelt emotions.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 26, 2007

Cynics need not apply, but I found Bella a real heart tugger.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 26, 2007

The film creates characters who are so relentlessly thoughtful and attractive that it's hard to worry about their problems, even at the outset.

| Oct 26, 2007

Writer-director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde brings to his feature debut a warmth and charity that offsets some of the script's more obvious devices.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 26, 2007

A barely disguised anti-abortion tract, Bella is simple-minded, heavy-handed and as subtle as a gorilla in a tutu.

| Original Score: D+ | Oct 26, 2007

Confessional moments and life lessons pop up around every corner as the movie swaps reality for old-fashioned melodrama. The movie defies logic.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 26, 2007

Monteverde's unobtrusive direction makes Bella into something far more interesting and affecting than the mediocre telenovela it could have been.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 26, 2007

A heart-tugger with the confidence not to tug too hard.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 26, 2007