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From Prada to Nada
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Lions Gate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (26th June 2011). |
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The Film
 Based – at least loosely – on Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” Angel Gracia’s “From Prada to Nada” is pretty much a failure as an adaptation of its source material. But it’s not a terrible movie. It’s just not a particularly good one either. “Nada” was originally titled “Sense and Sensibilidad”, a name that came and went sometime during the project’s lengthy six-year development process. The film – an update on Austen’s rich-girls-become-poor-girls-but-find-love-and-heartbreak-in-the-process formula, with a Latin flavored twist – isn’t the least bit successful in capturing anything but the most basic elements of the classic literary work. Then again, on its own terms, “Nada” is hardly an unwatchable film. It’s passable, if utterly forgettable, entertainment. And I don’t think those responsible for the production ever really wanted it to be anything more than that, and so "Nada" succeeds in meeting the decidedly low expectations of its creators (and probably the intended audience too). The film uses base comedy to tell its story (rather than the knowing societal commentary that persists in the novel via more highbrow humor), is hopelessly predictable, cliché, and at times laughably inane in terms of scripting, dialogue, and plot. But it’s solidly directed, with bright, capable and colorful cinematography, and a couple of unexpectedly strong performances from its leads. And it's funny in parts, sappily romantic in others, again achieving the un-loftiest of goals in rom-com filmdom. Frankly, there are far worse ways to spend 100-odd-minutes in front of the TV. (And, of course, there are much, much better ways to too.) “Nada” concerns itself with the tale of two sisters, Nora (Camilla Belle) and Mary (Alexa Vega). Having grown up as the pampered daughters of a wealthy Mexican-American widower and real-estate developer, both girls find themselves in a bit of a pickle when, upon his death, they learn that daddy left them penniless (the recession, we learn, hit him hard). The only thing left to them even remotely resembling an asset is the large mansion located in Beverly Hills. The sisters are soon forced to put their childhood home on the market when complications with a secret half-brother (Alexis Ayala) and his fiancé (April Bowlby) stir up issues with the will. Homeless and broke Mary and Nora seek out the only family they have left: a loving, but poverty-stricken aunt named Aurelia (Adriana Barraza) who lives in East L.A. “Tia” Aurelia accepts them into her bright blue house in Boyle Heights, getting Mary and Nora to reconnect with their Latina roots. Mary is forced to sell her BMW so that she can pay for school, and start hitting the books seriously hard so that she can graduate and become a functioning member of society. That is, until two men – a suave visiting professor from Mexico who looks like a model (Kuno Becker) and a local bad boy who’s also a sensitive muralist named Bruno (Wilmer Valderrama) – intervene, distracting Mary from careful-laid plans and forcing her to choose between the two. Meanwhile, Nora takes time off from law school to work in a law firm as a glorified secretary. One day, while riding the bus to work, she learns that a big-business employer is mistreating the maids and janitorial staff who clean up the mega-corps garbage by manipulating the time cards so that they don’t have to pay benefits. Nora takes the case to her flirty boss – and, coincidentally, brother to her future sister-in-law – Edward (Nicholas D’Agosto), a stereotypical white-guy, good-guy who’s blandly handsome, and charming, and, oh, right, a lawyer. (To be fair, in the supplements, both director Angel Gracia and D’Agosto seem to be completely aware of the white-bread nature of the character and the actor playing him, so…) It seems Nora too must choose: in her case, between a career and her could-be soul mate. “From Prada to Nada” is a simple, been-there-done-that romantic comedy. It’s safe, predicable, and, aside from its core concept as a Latino update on a classic novel, really, really unoriginal. But, like so many other plainly ordinary rom-coms, it’s not guilty of being overtly offensive or downright terrible. Belle and Vega work well in their roles, both together, as a pair of socially ill equipped sisters, and apart. Alexa Vega – who I’m more familiar with as the tomboyish Carmen from Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids” (2001-2011) franchise – seems natural in her part… which is odd because in the supplements she comes across as the complete opposite of Mary and seems to be less “girly”, and more like Carmen, in real life. The humor present in the screenplay (by Fina Torres, Luis Alfaro and Craig Fernandez), although usually ethnic-based and perhaps a little, intentionally, borderline racist, is, although base, sometimes quite funny. Gags with the subtitles during most of the mile-a-minute dialogue exchanges between the Spanish-speaking Aurelia and her gaggle of neighborhood women, were probably my favorite jokes. Mary’s odd dynamic with just about everyone – she is, after all, a culturally-retarded, dumb-California-blonde who makes statements like, “Well, my dad was Mexican, but I’m not.” – was pretty entertaining as well. “Nada” is well shot by cinematographer Héctor Ortega. The film offers some great wide-angle views of the colorful and eclectic city of Monterrey dressed up to look like Los Angeles (the film was, mostly, shot in Mexico for budgetary reasons). And Gracia – primarily a music video and commercial director – certainly has a knack for creating some slick, interesting looking, and competently staged sequences. “Nada’s” faults are largely only in comparison to Austen’s source and the other, superior, “Sensibility” adaptations on film that came before it – namely, the end-all-be-all Ang Lee version. Truthfully, “From Prada to Nada” isn’t anything particularly special. But, it is a mildly entertaining film and most definitely has bits in it that are clever (or nice-looking) enough to warrant a rental if the mood strikes. An admittedly low-cost rental suggestion, perfect for a slow night when you’re in the right frame of mind… but a rental all the same.
Video
The sun-drenched exteriors of Southern California, with the vibrant colors of Latin-American culture as a backdrop, make “From Prada to Nada” an attractive looking production. Shot natively in HD with the Sony F35, the digitally sourced film transfers to Blu-ray with a technically flawless 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encode, framed in 1.78:1 widescreen. Free of encoding anomalies, like banding or blocking, and source issues like print damage or digital noise from increased camera gain, “Nada” looks kind of gorgeous. It’s bright, shockingly colorful, has superb blacks, excellent contrast, and yes, plenty of detail on display. Why the B+ then? A combination of reasons really, for, as good as the film looks most of the time, a handful of issues hinder an otherwise pleasing presentation. Whites blindingly bloom out of control in many scenes clipping sky and details that could be seen out of windows, while occasionally giving objects and characters a distracting, hazy and almost angelic glow. Focus related softness is a noticeable problem at times. And the image is a bit too over processed for my taste: skin tones are consistently orangey, and a few select close ups seem to have had a bit of overzealous noise reduction applied. But, those few minor niggles aside; Lionsgate’s high def rendering of “From Prada to Nada” is a very pretty thing.
Audio
“Nada’s” English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (48kHz/24-bit) isn’t a potent room shaker, but it is the sort of strong mix that should accompany a new-to-disc film from 2011. The film has crisp, well-prioritized dialogue, and just a tiny bit of realistic low-end bass. Light on true discrete surround effects, “From Prada to Nada” instead relies on music to create atmosphere. Horribly poppy tunes like Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” give way to an eclectic, Latin flavored soundtrack fueled by a score from Heitor Pereira. All of the music, good and bad, fills the room from the rears nicely. Mostly in English, but with a peppering of Spanish from Tia and her co-workers, the film has default subtitles over the foreign language portions. Optional subtitles are available in English and Spanish.
Extras
Well, this is a nice surprise. Not only are all of the supplements encoded in (mostly) brilliant looking 1080p high definition… but a few of them are actually worth watching. “Nada” includes over an hour of featurettes, a blooper reel, deleted scenes, and a theatrical trailer. Not a bad collection of bonus material for a decidedly mediocre, forgettable, low budget feature that did poorly at the box office. Lionsgate offers their standard bookmarks and the disc has also been authored to support the resume playback function. “From Nada to Prada” (1080p, 23 minutes 41 seconds) is an above average making-of featurette. The cast and crew discuss the origins of “Nada” – as a script titled “Sense and Sensibilidad” –through production and release. Major topics covered include: writing, casting, shooting, editing, and releasing the film. If nothing else this featurette is worth watching for the moments with director Angel Gracia and editor Brad McLaughlin where they talk about how they handled the large sections of unplanned Spanish dialogue in post-production. They’re solution (playful subtitles that act as another cultural-based joke) is a fine one. Yes, this is still mostly EPK fodder, but its good EPK fodder. “SPARC Your Imagination with Judy and Wilmer” (1080p, 17 minutes 55 seconds) is the real highlight of the supplements. The featurette is based on an interview with the “Nada’s” artistic advisor Judith Baca and actor Wilmer Valderrama, who plays a muralist in the film. The focus is on the terrific artwork frequently on display during the film, with a spotlight on a few of murals and how Baca helped Valderrama tap into his character. “Mi Familia” (1080p, 31 minutes 28 seconds) featurette is a lengthy roundtable discussion with the cast and director. Shot about a year after wrapping production, director Angel Gracia guides his cast – Adriana Barraza, Wilmer Valderrama, Alexa Vega, Camilla Belle and Nicolas D’Agosto – through a look back on “From Prada to Nada”. The featurette is a little slow to start while everyone tries very, very hard to be cutesy funny only to fail miserably. Just grit your teeth and stick with it as at about four minutes in the cast finally start a worthwhile discussion. They talk about their characters and filming select scenes (sometimes in voiceover, accompanied by the appropriate clip) basically giving a condensed commentary track. Honestly, this is a pretty good extra. On a technical note, the roundtable footage suffers from low light video noise and the audio is a few volume notches too low. What would a romantic comedy be without the requisite blooper reel? Probably the same, but “Nada” has one anyway… straightforward blooper reel (1080p, 2 minutes 40 seconds) title and all. At least it’s mercifully short. A deleted scenes reel (1080p, 5 minutes 21 seconds) includes some alternate and cut material. A slightly reworked opening in which Mary makes out with a random guy while high, and Nora practices her courtroom jargon in the library is unneeded as most of the surrounding footage from these sequences made it into the film and already established both characters. Olivia, the evil step-sister-in-law, gets more screen time in her excised scenes: a telephone conversation she has with an unseen person discussing her remodeling plans is pointless (and covered elsewhere) and a tour of the house that she gives Edward is equally redundant. Mary reads poetry and has a heart to heart with Bruno in a scene that might have worked in the final film. And finally, an extended version of “Nora’s makeover” tacks on a moment where Tia Jimenez gives Nora a pair of earrings that belong to her mother. The theatrical trailer (1080p, 2 minutes 21 seconds) is also included.
Overall
“From Prada to Nada” is horribly disposable entertainment and hardly at all original. After all it’s not just one of a thousand romantic comedies, but a retelling of a classic Jane Austen novel too. But a couple of the performances are sound and the humor, although base, is at times funny. “Nada” won’t win any awards, is totally forgettable cinematic slop and really not with more than a rental, but the film, in parts anyway, is enjoyable…ish. It’s far from great, not even particularly good, but certainly it’s not completely terrible. Lionsgate’s Blu-ray looks great, sounds pretty good, and has a few unexpectedly worthwhile extras. Rent it.
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