BELLA BROWN is a full-on cuteness attack and creates a poppy, colorful magical work where wishing on something can still help. Bella (Jessica Brown Findlay, Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey), was raised by nuns and is now a young woman with a hat and a soft spot for grey. She has two obsessions and one big wish: she sorts out everything, like the food on her plate, hates nature, and wants to write children’s books. However, when she sits in front of her typewriter in her quaint English home in the evening, she can’t think of anything to write. Luckily Bella isn’t alone in the world. Her nasty neighbor Alfie (Tom Wilkinson, unbeatably charming as always) lures her outside when he complains to the landlord about the neglected garden. Threatened with being evicted, Bella has to take care of the weeds and the trash. A sweet Irish cook with twin daughters and a quirky inventor who is building a mechanical bird stand by her side. Food, gardening, and flying are the metaphors for freedom that BELLA BROWN works with. The food on the plate gets messier, the garden transforms into a sunny gem with a pond, and Bella finds the courage to write her story. BELLA BROWN celebrates artificial self-actualization. Whether creativity can really help overcome obsessive thoughts is beside the point. The film is realistic about one thing: there has to be someone who can finance all of this happiness.

Hendrike Bake

Translation: Elinor Lewy