Bella - A Beautiful Movie

If you enjoy ‘a day in the life of’ type of movies, you’ll find this one compelling. The story is about Nina, (Sophie Nyweide) a young waitress in a Mexican restaurant, who gets fired for turning up late. The restaurant owner’s brother, Jose (Eduardo Verastegui), who is also the chef, walks off his job to befriend Nina and discovers that she is pregnant. Instead of abandoning her, he accompanies Nina throughout the day, sharing his support and friendship. This leads Nina to make a very important decision about the fate of the unborn child.

Nina and Jose have past tragedies in their own lives, which they have struggled to overcome. The gift of time, understanding, and friendship that they give to one another throughout the day, helps them both to be healed of the past.

I loved the journey through New York City that the movie portrays using subways, trains, and taxi cabs. The conversation that the two major characters have is very moving and intense at times. There is also a beautiful moment when Nina is asked by a blind beggar to describe the sights around her.

The movie is a pleasant blend of white American and Latino cultures. Subtitles are used at times, but they don’t interfere with the story. When Jose invites Nina back to his family home, the feelings of welcome, acceptance, and understanding that Nina needs, are found in the compassion of his mother and father.

The movie deals with adult situations, but not in a gratuitous way. The care that Jose displays to Nina enables her to overcome her fears and worries. She does not want to go through with her pregnancy, but Jose’s sincerity reassures her in many beautiful ways. He also needs Nina to go through with the pregnancy in order to redeem himself from a tragic past.

The ending is absolutely marvelous and brings the whole story to a beautiful ending and new beginning. It’s during those last scenes that we at last get to know who Bella actually is. The actors are relatively unknown, but that enriches the whole film. The characters become real people and not just movie stars playing real people.

I think it would be a wonderful movie for any adult Sunday school or Youth group to view. It will inspire a lot of questions and discussion that we tend avoid in our churches today. The movie was also the 2007 winner of the prestigious Toronto Film Award.

Movie website: http://www.bellamoviesite.com/

Youtube Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ9AkTrbxgk

August Rush

Genesis 1:4 - God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. (NIV)

I watched a great movie recently that has become one of my top ten. I had been meaning to watch it for awhile because my daughters told me it was terrific. I've also used some clips from the movie in the Sunday School class that I teach each week. So, late one evening, I began to watch August Rush.


It's really an updated version of Oliver Twist (Oliver! is also in my top ten). The plot is about a young boy called Evan, who grows up in an orphanage, and who has some amazing hearing and musical skills. As he listens to the world around him, he can hear all sorts of music and rhythms. He also believes that his parents, who unknowingly abandoned him, can hear that music too. Evan thinks that if he can write and play the music he hears in his head and heart, he will be reunited with his parents.

The music in the movie is beautiful, and the setting is mostly in New York. Evan's adventure is as delightful as Oliver Twist's in London town. The whole story is a musical journey, and the characters, who lead separate lives, are wonderfully drawn together. The crescendo of the movie builds until it reaches both a musical and dramatic climax that had me in tears. It's a great family movie, and I would recommend it to anyone. The separation issues in August Rush are beautifully overcome.

Freddie Highmore plays Evan so brilliantly that you cannot help but cheer for him throughout the entire movie. It's a great film for a Youth Group lock-in, dealing with issues of relationships, sexuality, abandonment, and innocence.

When God separated the light from the darkness in the creation of the universe, I wonder if He did it musically, as well as dramatically. I wonder if all the angels, who watched the universe being born, sang gloriously as God spun the galaxies, stars, and planets together. I would love to have been there, watching God as a master craftsman building the physical structure of the cosmos. And as He wove our planet into being, I wonder if God was whistling, humming, or singing.

Today, as I look at the world around me, I'm going to try to listen as well. I want to be keyed into the voice of God and hear what He is saying through all the interaction of life that is buzzing around me. I want to feel that I am ready to hear what He says and no longer be separated from His universal song. I want to listen to God singing; I want to join in the cosmic chorus.

Prayer: Lord God, life is truly amazing, and this planet is a wonderful world. Help us to listen to Your voice and realize that there is music in all that You do and accomplish. Allow us to accompany You in the celestial song of creation. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Movie Homepage: http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com/

The Boy in Striped Pajamas

James Horner’s haunting theme for the movie, “The Boy in Striped Pyjamas,” is a musical combination of innocence and dread. The music captivates all that transpires in this moving film. The critics will probably pan it for underplaying the intensity of the holocaust, but they are missing an innovative perspective that this movie brings: the innocence of children in the midst of a nightmarish and devastating time.

The story, written by John Boyne, is about two boys on either side of the electrified, barbed-wired fence of a Nazi concentration camp. Bruno, innocently played by young Asa Butterfield, is the eight year old child of the camp’s commandant. He befriends an equally young Jewish boy called Shmuel (Jack Scanlon). Their secret friendship makes them each ponder their circumstances, whilst comparing their fathers’ personalities. Each day, Bruno and Shmuel surreptitiously play games with each other, completely unaware of the horrors and atrocities that are taking place inside the camp.

Initially, Bruno is convinced that the camp is a farm and wonders why the workers wear striped pajamas all day long. And even when he meets Shmuel, he is convinced that the number on his jacket is all part of a silly game that the workers are playing.

Throughout the movie, the feeling of dread persists, but both boys retain their innocence until the last few stunning minutes in the movie, when both of them are caught up in a whirlwind of horrifying events, which they sadly cannot escape. Their innocence is brutally crushed, but their friendship is undying when Shmuel lovingly takes Bruno’s hand. It’s the tenderest and most loving part in a very sad movie.

The rest of the cast wonderfully underplay their characters in order to make the two boys shine. David Thewlis, who is more recently known for playing bungling Professor Lupin in the Harry Potter series, conveys evil in a matter-of-fact manner. The commandant is absolutely soulless, which makes him appallingly dangerous.

Vera Farmiga, who played alongside Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Departed,” plays Bruno’s mother, whose hopes and expectations for her family, as well as her pride for her husband, are shattered completely when she realizes the horrific truth about what is happening to the Jewish prisoners in the concentration camp.

Amongst the other actors, David Heyman plays a cameo role of a Jewish doctor, who is reduced to using his surgical skills to peel potatoes in the commandant’s kitchen. David Heyman is one of Britain’s finest actors, as well as being the founder of Heyday Productions, which produced this movie, as well as the successful Harry Potter series.

Perhaps the movie will not live up to people’s expectations of Holocaust-themed films, but it may eventually become a vehicle for educating young people about those horrific times. Overall, I would rate it with a B+.

Movie Homepage
http://www.boyinthestripedpajamas.com/

Discussion Study Guide: http://www.boyinthestripedpajamas.com/BOYDiscussionGuide_Heartland%5b3%5d.pdf

Podcast devotional on the Movie
http://media.libsyn.com/media/stushie/Striped_Pajamas.mp3

Youtube Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5FU-yDC-uI