From Prada to Nada

Two Mexican-American sisters, Nora and Mary Dominguez, have grown up in comfort in Beverly Hills. Nora is serious and studies law, while Mary is more interested in clothes and parties. When their father dies unexpectedly, the family money turns out to be gone, and the sisters must leave their home and move in with their aunt Aurelia, a relative they barely know, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles.

The film follows their adjustment to a much plainer life, where an expensive car gives way to the bus and a used one, and to a community that is unfamiliar despite their own heritage. A loose Latin adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, the story pairs the sisters' differing temperaments with new romances, including a literature instructor and men from the neighborhood.

Angel Gracia directed. The screenplay is credited to Fina Torres, Craig Fernandez and Luis Alfaro, with Rossana Arau, Lisa Ellzey and Gary Gilbert producing. Camilla Belle plays Nora and Alexa PenaVega plays Mary; Adriana Barraza appears as Aunt Aurelia, with Wilmer Valderrama and Nicholas D'Agosto in supporting roles. It was released in January 2011 and took in about 4 million dollars worldwide. Reception was modest: on IMDb it holds 5.6/10 from roughly 16,000 votes, on TMDB 5.4/10 from over 300 votes, and a critics' rating of 4.3/10 from 21 reviews, so audiences and critics landed fairly close to each other.