FROM PRADA TO NADA (PG-13)

From Prada to Nada (PG-13)

MOVIESAL'S GRADE:  F

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Camilla Belle	...	Nora Dominguez
	Alexa Vega	...	Mary Dominguez
	Pablo Cruz	...	Gabriel Dominguez Jr.
	April Bowlby	...	Olivia
	Nicholas D'Agosto	...	Edward Ferris

This movie proclaims to be based on the Jane Austen classic Sense and Sensibility. Now, I have read some Jane Austen in my time (not this one, alas), and let me tell you. Jane Austen was never this boring, stupid, vapid, and shallow.

It opens with two wealthy Beverly Hills sisters, Mary and Nora, losing their father. All that I understand. Everything after that makes no sense at all. Somehow, through circumstances the movie doesn't really both to explain, they lose everything to their long-lost brother they never knew existed because his fiancée is a conniving shrew. They end up in East LA living with their aunt. They reconnect with their Mexican heritage and find love, all within ninety minutes. Gotta love Hollywood.

Sadly, I won't be able to give you a point-by-point comparison of the book and the movie, which I know is what you're dying to see. This movie will have to stand or fall on its own merits. 

Spoiler alert: It falls. On every single level it falls.

I don't even know where to begin. It's a romantic comedy that is neither romantic nor a comedy. I honestly didn't laugh once, and I can't even identify a single moment where I was supposed to laugh. There weren't any jokes or gags or character development or anything even worth writing or thinking about. There aren't even real characters. Everyone in this movie is just a broadstroke characterization of a tired cliche. They say some lines and you fill in the blanks. Oh, hey. She's a snob who likes to shop. Think she'll learn a lesson about not being a selfish hobag? Oh, hey. She's a workaholic with relationship issues. Think she'll learn a lesson about that? It's the kind of movie where you know in literally the first five minutes everything that is going to happen. You know who each sister will end up with, you just don't have a damn idea why anyone would fall in love with anyone in this movie, or why you should bother caring when they do. There's no emotional investment from anyone involved. Everything that happens, happen only because the script says it should. The actors slink through their roles like they're ashamed to be involved. And they should be. Deeply ashamed.

The last thing I will mention is the directing and the camera work. Good Lord! I'm not normally someone who notices camera work in a romcom, and you shouldn't. There's no reason directing should stand out in a movie like this. But, this camera work was absolutely appallingly bad. Horrible cuts (probably more the fault of the editor than the director, to be fair), terrible tracking shots, and awful use of changing perspectives halfway through a scene. The entire movie shouted amateur hour, except that's an insult to amateurs. And hours. And this movie is an insult to the human race.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Entertaining? Hell no.

Enlightening? Only inasmuch as it made me glad to be single.

SUMMARY: There is absolutely nothing to like about this movie. Even on a fun, escapist level it fails. I honestly don't even think teenagers will like it.