Review of A la mala (2015) by Greg B — 03 Mar 2015

"A La Mala" is a limited release Spanish language foreign film with English subtitles about an aspiring actress who is commissioned by her friends and colleagues to try to seduce their significant others to test the mens' fidelity.

Unknowingly, if she is successful in her seduction, it will prove to her female friends that their men would stray too easily. When Laura Maria (Mala) the main character is offered an acting job on an up-and-coming television show, her producer offers her the position in exchange to try to perform her seduction services on her ex-boyfriend who she suspects would be unfaithful.

Of course, as irony would have it, Mala falls head over heels for the guy and is left in a difficult crossroads to choose between her love interest and her acting career. I found the story in this film to be endearing and nice.

There is no re-inventing the wheel here; in fact, the ending is extremely cookie-cutter and reminiscent of "How to lose a guy in 10 days," except in this film, the woman does the chasing rather than the man.

I thought the film had a nice premise, and it was a simple, digestible story. I thought much in the script was schmaltzy, but there was also an authentic quality to the story. The humor is well-timed in this movie, and I found this film sincere for the most part.

While not a groundbreaking foreign language film, it did enough to satisfy my expectations ----------------------------------------------------------- B.