It’s not really fair to reduce an entire movie production down to a beard, but I’m afraid that’s all I could think about during Bella. Star Eduardo Verastegui sports the most distracting facial hair since that guy in Knocked Up who bet his roommates he wouldn’t shave for a year – and this picture is supposed to be serious. The movie follows the tragic tale of Jose, a rising soccer star whose bright future is suddenly snatched away. He responds by becoming a chef in his brother’s restaurant. Directed by Alejandro Monteverde, Bella is all over the place (the movie is jumbled enough before Monteverde starts playing with the time frame). At turns mundane and melodramatic, the story never has a chance of competing for our attention against that beard.
