David Pierdomenico
Conceived as a remake of the original Mexican film of the same name, Miss Bala sought to bring the story to an American audience. And while remakes are often very hit or miss, they deserve to be judged on their own merit rather than simply being compared to the original. So let’s take a closer look at Miss Bala.
A Sporadic Plot
The film opens with a makeup artist Gloria (Gina Rodriguez) as she’s doing makeup for the models of fashion week in Los Angeles. She’s trying to work her way up the professional ladder, but it’s not going so well. Gloria visits her friend Suzu (Cristina Rodlo) in Tijuana, Mexico, and ends up surviving a shootout in a nightclub. Suzu goes missing in the aftermath and as Gloria searches for her friend, she gets trapped into the service of Los Estrellas drug gang, and their ruthless leader Lino (Ismael Cruz Cordova).
Because of her US Citizenship, they use her as a mule. She quickly grabs the attention of the DEA, who want to use her as a mole in the drug operation. But as criminals and law enforcement clash, she finds herself realizing that she’s just a pawn in a drug war, one where both sides are willing to sacrifice her to achieve their goals. Gina Rodriguez shines in her role as Gloria, but the storyline never gives her enough to work with. There are a myriad of plot points that would have been interesting and compelling, if fully fleshed out. But the film seems to gloss over them too quickly.
Just when the story starts to turn a certain way and become intriguing, it shifts into another direction, almost forgetting about that plot thread entirely. We meet other characters such as Jimmy (Anthony Mackie) one of Lino’s regional leaders who has information about a mole, as well as Isabel (Aislinn Derbez), one of the gang member’s girlfriends who serves as a sort of cautionary tale of Gloria’s future. Both of these characters would have been excellent additions to Gloria’s arc, but we barely get two scenes with each of them! It felt like the screenwriter was more focused on including as many plot points as possible, without ever really delving too deeply into any one of them.
Hit or Miss Action
While the original Miss Bala was more a drama/thriller, this version takes a much more action-oriented approach. It does some things well, but some others not so much. Catherine Hardwicke is a talented director who’s proven herself with films like Thirteen, The Nativity Story, Red Riding Hood, and yes even Twilight! Each of these films delivered strong emotional moments, and she very much does the same here, but it doesn’t always translate well to action scenes. Hardwicke’s directing style involves a lot of handheld camera and close-ups of character’s faces so as to focus on tension and emotion.
But this method of shooting doesn’t work well for a large shootout scene in the middle of a town square. With a shaky camera focusing on close-up shots, the audience quickly becomes disoriented and loses focus on the overall scene. Even just a few more wideshots here and there would have made all the difference. However, to her credit, Hardwicke does manage to overcome one of the most annoying clichés when it comes to action film protagonists. So many of them start out as complete amateurs but somehow become experts at their craft in a very short time.
Are we really to believe that Tom Cruise’s character in The Last Samurai mastered the katana in a few months while the rest of them spent years training? Or that Doctor Strange went from not even believing in magic to holding his own against a master sorcerer like ? Lino does teach Gloria how to shoot over a few days, and while she uses these skills at the end, she’s not suddenly Rambo either. Her level of skill by the end seems realistic to someone who’s only had a few days to train.
Promoting Representation
Perhaps the greatest contribution Miss Bala makes to cinema is giving audiences an action film with a Latina heroine in the lead. In an ever changing landscape, where diversity is being made more of a priority, it’s quite refreshing to see a character like Gloria as the protagonist rather than just a love interest with no real bearing on the plot. In addition to having a female director as well, it was reported that a vast majority of the crew (as well as the cast) are Latino/a, which is quite unusual for a mainstream American release.
Gloria is such an inspiring protagonist because in the beginning she’s just a helpless bystander who reacts the things happening to her, but by the end she’s a bold and confident warrior who takes her fate into her own hands. As most Hollywood films tend to do, the ending of course left room for a potential sequel. And with a slightly more focused screenplay and better action scenes, there’s real potential for a masterpiece. But for now, her character growth is enough to take a film that would have been mediocre and make it decent.
