Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
47
(18 sources)
47
(18 sources)
-
75
Chicago Sun-Times
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
-
75
San Francisco Chronicle
A tearjerker that earns its sobs with heartfelt emotions. Read Full Review » -
70
Chicago Reader
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 Chronicle
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
-
50
Variety
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 Tribune
The melodrama and cheap theatrics of the story's off-center segments drag the whole thing down. Read Full Review » -
50
Los Angeles Times
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 Inquirer
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 Weekly
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)
If you have an appetite for well-made treacle, then Bella should go down a treat. Read Full Review » -
40
-
40
The New York Times
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
Boston Globe
In this bilingual morality movie about love, family, and fate, however, the unpredictability turns out to be highly predictable. Read Full Review » -
38
Miami Herald
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 » -
33
The Onion (A.V. Club)
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 Post
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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