From Prada to Nada Movie Review
Directed by Angel Gracia
Rated: PG-13
Run Time: 107 mins
Genre: Comedy/ Family/ Animation/ Adventure/ 3D Film
3.5 frames out of 5
Jane Austin is about to get salsa-fied….
When wealthy Beverly Hills socialite sisters Nora (Camilla Belle) and Mary Dominguez (Alexa Vega) suddenly lose their father, the world turns upside down faster than they can fathom. They discover that they have a half brother Gabriel (Pablo Cruz) and he ends up getting their house and all the stuff in it. His nasty wife Olivia (April Bowlby) doesn’t take to kindly to the girls and orders them out of the house within days of their father’s funeral. With nowhere else to go, since their mother passed away years ago, Nora and Mary leave their plush lifestyle and venture out to family that lives out in… East Los Angeles.
Mary is so outside of her comfort zone, as she’s more closed minded to this new lifestyle and is willing to do anything to get back to Beverly Hills. The neighbor that lives across the street looks like a gangbanger, Bruno (Wilmer Valderrama), but is more than meets the eye. Mary looks down on Bruno; always suspicious but intrigued by his bad boy appearance. Nora, on the other hand, is embracing her new connection to her roots and new home. Being the more level headed sister, Nora knows that they need to make sacrifices if they are ever to get back on their feet, so she decides to leave law school to get a job and then makes Mary to go back to school.
A bright spot in this dismal situation is that Olivia’s brother, Edward Ferris (Nicholas D’Agosto), is a lawyer, going above and beyond to help out Nora and Mary in any way he can. Edward is so over the moon for Nora, but Nora is too much of a control freak to give in to her feelings for Edward.
Mary finds love in the form of a handsome Teacher’s Assistant, Rodrigo Fuentes (Kuno Becker). He’s everything Mary is looking for; smart, handsome, charming, wealthy… he’s Mary’s ticket back into the life of luxury and into the right zip code, 90210.
Unfortunately, life never really works out the way we hope for. Or does it? Can Mary and Nora figure things out and find their role in life?
Jane Austin, I think, would be proud of this modern retelling of Sense and Sensibility. Telling it from a Latin/ Mexican perspective gives it so much warmth, heart and humor into a culture than many Americans have many misconceptions about. In the screening I attended, it was refreshing to see an audience be so interactive with the film, but in a respective way. Audiences will have a good time with this film as there are a lot of cultural references that may be funnier in certain parts of the country than others. The actors cast had great chemistry, the comic timing was solid and overall a fun movie to watch.
Things to watch for: Moving Van scene; Walk in the new neighborhood, Any scene with the aunts.
Who should see this movie: Fans of Sense & Sensibility; Fans of Camilla Belle, Alexa Vega, Adriana Barraza, Nicholas D’Agosto, Wilmer Valderrama, April Bowlby, Kuno Becker
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