Bella
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: October 26, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
9
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie is a little more lightweight than the usual People's Choice Award winner at Toronto, but why not? It was the best-liked film at the 2006 festival, and I can understand that. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Cynics need not apply, but I found Bella a real heart tugger. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
A tearjerker that earns its sobs with heartfelt emotions. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
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. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Bella is, indeed, a beautiful film. The bustling, cab-crowded thoroughfares of New York City have rarely looked as inviting and the coastline as momentously beachy as they do in this film. Read full review
50
VarietyRobert Koehler
Mexican-born helmer Alejandro Monteverde's debut will be remembered as a curious case of a mediocre film that wows crowds. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneTasha Robinson
The melodrama and cheap theatrics of the story’s off-center segments drag the whole thing down. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Well-acted first-feature. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesGary Goldstein
Certainly a sweet, life-affirming picture, but it's just not authentic or captivating enough to justify its wildly concocted scenario. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
What are you going to do when your lead actress offers a performance that's as unlikable as the woman she's portraying? Maybe it's the script (flimsy, formulaic), or filmmaker Alejandro Gomez Monteverde's conspicuous direction, but Tammy Blanchard's Nina, a waitress with a dour disposition and an unwanted pregnancy, pretty much sucks the life out of this well-meaning melodrama. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
In stories like this defiantly unsubtle, structurally clunky specimen, causes women who are considering abortion to think again, and self-selecting audiences to enjoy a light, luxurious weep. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
If you have an appetite for well-made treacle, then Bella should go down a treat. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJulia Wallace
Manages to be utterly predictable without making any sense at all. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen Holden
If Bella (the title doesn’t make sense until the last scene) is a mediocre cup of mush, the response to it suggests how desperate some people are for an urban fairy tale with a happy ending, no matter how ludicrous. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
The film is more of an exercise in pandering and propaganda -- give your baby up for adoption, you selfish pig! -- than the heartfelt drama it aims to be. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeErin Meister
In this bilingual morality movie about love, family, and fate, however, the unpredictability turns out to be highly predictable. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The emotions at play in Bella are no doubt heartfelt--and must have resonated with a few hundred people, anyway--but they're so cut-and-dried that the mawkish script virtually writes itself. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A Mexican movie in which the outcome is never in doubt, the scenes are endless -- sorry, we meant poetic-- and the false beard on the central character's face looks as though it could use a little extra gum. Read full review
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