Thaindian News

Film: “From Prada to Nada”; Director: Angel Gracia; Actors: Camilla Belle, Alexa Vega, Wilmer Valderrama; Rating: *1/2

Classic English literature has never failed to provide fodder to cinema. However, it takes much more than a good story to get a film right, as “From Prada to Nada”, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” first published exactly 200 years ago, proves.

Sisters Nora (Camilla Belle) and Mary (Alexa Vega) Dominguez are left homeless after their rich father dies leaving them nothing. Their house is taken over by their half brother and the sisters have to move in with their aunt to a Latin neighbourhood in downtown Los Angeles.

Here, the two sisters, who are opposites of each other, find love and heartbreak, while realising the sense and sensibility of love and living.

The story, if one were to look purely at that, is a decent, modern and very Latino adaptation of the original novel. Where the film lets down, is in the acting department and in direction.

Too many unnecessary details clog the screen, denying the audience the pleasurable cinematic experience of a good story.

Also, modern viewers might be more than a tad disappointed with its impression of love. In an age of rampant infidelity and modern love, that a kiss is enough to hold love, seems strange.

The direction of the film has more loyalty to long, boring television soaps, than to either Jane Austen’s original story or its many previous cinematic interpretations, good or bad.

However, the film does manage to get the sensibility and metaphor of the original story right. It aptly, though with a few hiccups, manages to transplant Austen’s 19th century novel, into the 21st century.

The spoilt, rich girls do manage to find the lives of the poor better and exciting in the end, learning some invaluable lessons on the way. However, that is not enough in a film that indeed smells of wasted potential.

Better visualisation and improved editing would surely have evened out many rough edges.