The Beautiful Fantasy

The last time I went to see a fairytale there was a witch, a princess and a strapping prince. Well, in the highly promoted movie Bella, written by Director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, there is the evil witch named Abortion, a princess named All Unborn Children and Jose, ex-soccer player turned prince.

First I should say it is a beautiful movie and I did my share of crying. The scenes of New York are typical and for those of us who secretly desire to have a studio there for weekend trips to Manhattan it was a great vicarious excursion to the little Island. The actors were more beautiful than the cinematography. It was a pleasure to watch the intensity in their eyes, to hear their voices, to listen to the passion in the Spanish language. Independent film is one more way to promote democracy and in this case hopefully love.

That said, I must now confess I was ultimately disappointed by the film. This is the synopsis: Unwed waitress gets pregnant and Jesus looking-friend offers to raise the baby on his own to prevent her from having an abortion and to fill a huge, gaping hole in his heart. Interestingly, Jose, the Jesus-look alike, is from a loving and presumably middle class family – though not originally from money. There is lots of love and wisdom flowing in that house, in contrast to the childhood home void of intimacy for the waitress. I wanted to hug Jose's mother and sit at their dinner table to feel the familial embrace. I kept thinking throughout though, what are the chances that such a young man in search of purpose and redemption asks a broke pregnant mother to raise her child? I would guess that this almost never happens. That is Hollywood. That is called a fairytale. I don’t mean to be cynical but when the Catholic Church and Focus on the Family are on a promoting mission one has to wonder about their motives. We all have them.

We also all celebrate fantasy. In fact, that is why we love the movies. We love to lose ourselves in emotion and our daydreams. In my class we have been discussing how Christian progressives, evangelical progressives I might add, need to become better acquainted with emotion as a part of our agenda. As Professor Susan Thistlethwaite stated, “To be effective in public theology we have to have an emotional connection with how people really live their lives and their lived theologies. Lived theologies are very emotional and intimate.” A classmate also brought up the fact that people are very emotionally tied to their worldviews, especially if the worldview will keep them out of hell. It stems from the base and perpetual fear of being separated from God.

While rationality does not always change hearts, it does keep us grounded in reality. I think emotions can lead us to believing in fantasy and that is, in my opinion, a sin. It is often a lie. It is a tale told to reinforce the status quo and it can destroy lives. Were the people (by the way my theatre was packed with people opening night in Warrenville, IL) clapping at the end of the movie because there was finally triumph over the evil witch abortion, for the love shared in the family, for the miracle of life? I am sure it was for a little bit of all the above but for one to walk away thinking Choice is no longer necessary for a woman because a handsome young man or someone, some thing (her sanity, God, her courage) will come to her rescue, is false. It is usually just her, her mind, her will, her sense for what is right and wrong that will aid her in her choice. Instead, I am hoping that some of us walked away from the movie motivated to take a risk to love another human just because we can see in their sorrow our own brokenness. This is where the healing of the world begins.