When I heard of Miss Bala (2019) starring Gina Rodriguez, I only knew of her as someone who makes her publicist rock in a corner for getting the wrong kind of publicity. Even though I was tempted to see a film with a chick kicking ass, once I realized that it was a remake of a Mexican film, and original foreign films are usually better than American remakes, I decided to have a Miss Bala marathon at home instead of going to the theater and paying to see one that was probably a pale imitation. This review is about the American remake, which I watched immediately after the original.
The US remake is a complete departure from the original. If you did not see the original, then you may have less problems with this iteration than someone who did, i.e. a completist and foreign film lover like me. In Miss Bala (2019), which means Miss Bullet, Rodriguez gets to play the girl next door, have the Cinderella fantasy come true, embody an amateur dash of Taken in the last half hour then become an empowered, kick ass woman in the final thirteen minutes of the one hundred four minute movie. By the end, I could visualize pitches to the CW to basically have a series in which she uses her school of hard knocks , hard won skills to become an expert double agent. Think The Spy Who Dumped Me with absolutely zero comedy and with a friend family angle. It would fall in the same genre as Alias or a more ordinary Nikita. I would probably watch that show.
Some of the changes made to the story make parts more plausible than the original. Rodriguez plays a Mexican American woman so when she does something stupid, Miss Bala (2019) still seems plausible because while she is not quite a tourist, she is not a local so she would not know better. She cannot simply go home without the friend that she is staying at. Her friend is also not a jerk. It makes sense that this protagonist would be so invested in this person. Also there was one neat visual change in choreography when she leaves the club between her and the cars in the parking lot that feels organic and carries the seeds of the woman who will emerge in the denouement of the film.
Miss Bala (2019) makes several crucial changes that completely alter the movie’s criticism of society. It alters the protagonist’s reason for being at the pageant, which completely erases the cautionary tale inherent in the original’s narrative so she is never subject to criticism for putting herself in danger. While I would not criticize the original as victim blaming since the protagonist is depicted as a good girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, there is an implicit critique of her dreams. The original protagonist is similar to Sansa from Game of Thrones who discovers that the reality is starkly different from what she imagined, and a lot of viewers were critical of that character for being an ordinary girl instead of the kickass girl whereas in the real world, girls and women do get rewarded for sticking to gender norms, and the kickass girl has to resist being put in the gender normative slot.
Miss Bala (2019) uses the protagonist’s identity as a Mexican American to criticize the current Presidon’t’s administration for not seeing her as a citizen first, for its deportation policy, which to be fair existed prior to this administration and denigrating Mexican Americans and Mexicans as inherently criminal. There is still criticism of the Mexican government and the sexual trafficking of women, but it takes a back seat to the role that the US government plays in her situation. Because she is not a criminal, but an ordinary woman, in order to survive, she has to choose between siding with criminals or forging her own way. It is completely unrealistic, unlike the original film, which depicts how an ordinary woman would probably act, but hey, it is a movie. The denouement does toy with a provocative concept that maybe it makes more sense to ditch the American part and cling to the Mexican part, but not in a way that is sustainable although another filmmaker would be wise to meditate on a better way to explore that concept.
If Miss Bala (2019) commits one unforgiveable sin to make it more marketable, instead of making the head of the criminal organization an older man whom the protagonist was definitely not only not into, but in complete fear of as the original did, this film makes him hot and objectifies him. Before you think that it is about time that guys feel the brunt of objectification, the protagonist is in jeopardy because of this bad guy. There are very few filmmakers (Pedro Almodovar is the only one that comes to mind) who can feasibly subvert the trope in which a man kidnaps a woman then the woman gets attracted to him and is retroactively fine with the kidnapping without that storyline seeming completely horrific and unrealistic. Unfortunately this film is no exception. I do not care if you get kidnapped by the person whom you find most attractive in the universe, most women are thinking, “Please don’t hurt me,” not “Ohhhhh, he is hot.” While the movie does engage in some fancy footwork to stay on the right side of cinematic history, it is too little too late. It is very disappointing.
Miss Bala (2019) is action fantasy, and the original is a gritty crime drama. Both films are unrealistic in the way that their respective protagonist responds to events beyond their control. While the original protagonist is never passive, people victimize her, and it is not comfortable to watch. She is robbed of her agency and individuality. In the US remake, it is the opposite. We keep waiting for her to turn the tables instead of expecting that she won’t. American viewers are inherently uncomfortable with the idea that we can be victimized and not regain the upper hand so watching an ordinary woman do that is what we want, but it is junk food, not vegetables. Instead of premiering in their respective countries, I do not believe that if the American version debuted in Mexico and vice versa, they would not last a week. The audiences seem to want different things, and Americans seem to suffer in this comparison. The original could never be made in this country. The worldwide gross receipts for the American version were also larger. It is embarrassing.
If you want to enjoy Miss Bala (2019) without feeling any guilt, do not watch the original before watching it. Also if I had known that Anthony “Make Daddy a Sandwich” Mackie was in it, I may have reconsidered watching it, but his role is small enough that it should not be a deterrent. If you like Rodriguez, definitely watch it because the movie never once leaves her side. I liked her in the movie, but not enough to erase my vague memories of her need to apologize frequently and publicly.