Gloria, a Hollywood make-up artist, visits her friend in Tijuana who is signing up for a beauty contest (Miss Baja California). At a party Gloria while in the restroom witnesses a bunch of bad guys meet up and discuss getting rid of some guy named Saucedo. Because she's American she's let go. Then, the guys shoot up the place and Gloria and her friend are separated.
Next day after trying in vain to find her friend, Gloria approaches a cop to tell him about the missing girl, the cop claims to drive her to a cop station, instead takes her somewhere where the same bad guys grab her. The main bad guy, Lino, offers to help her find her friend if she helps him out in turn. They sign her up now for the beauty pageant. Gloria escapes from the guy watching her and somehow runs straight into the arms of DEA agents. Huh? Yeah. They of course want Lino and recruit Gloria to place a bug in his phone so they can track and capture him.
While completing a mission for Lino she does manage to bug his phone and get in touch with her DEA handler. They plan on capturing Lino at some deal and get Gloria out of there. Indeed, a shoot-out ensues by the lone 2 (!) DEA agents taking on Lino and his gang. Gloria makes it to the agreed place to find no one there to rescue her. So she has no choice but to help Lino out to appear to be on his side. At some point she manages to escape for a while, to look after her friend's little brother but Lino find her quickly and make a deal with her. They cartel takes the kid as insurance. They are still after this Saucedo guy who runs the police, and the beauty pageant, and is trying to take over the cartel's operations. So they set up Gloria to win the pageant so she can get some private time with Saucedo at a party.
Things go as planned and at the party Gloria runs into her friend. There's a revelation and the final confrontation.
The basics of the story are solid for the most part. Miss Bala should be a pretty good action thriller/drama. But somehow it doesn't work all that well. Gloria doesn't make that compelling of a character. As most characters, she's forced to make dumb decisions for the sake of the script and there is not shortage of dumb coincidences. This world of cartels and their victims should be darker and more menacing that what the good-natured Hardwicke portrays.
Next day after trying in vain to find her friend, Gloria approaches a cop to tell him about the missing girl, the cop claims to drive her to a cop station, instead takes her somewhere where the same bad guys grab her. The main bad guy, Lino, offers to help her find her friend if she helps him out in turn. They sign her up now for the beauty pageant. Gloria escapes from the guy watching her and somehow runs straight into the arms of DEA agents. Huh? Yeah. They of course want Lino and recruit Gloria to place a bug in his phone so they can track and capture him.
While completing a mission for Lino she does manage to bug his phone and get in touch with her DEA handler. They plan on capturing Lino at some deal and get Gloria out of there. Indeed, a shoot-out ensues by the lone 2 (!) DEA agents taking on Lino and his gang. Gloria makes it to the agreed place to find no one there to rescue her. So she has no choice but to help Lino out to appear to be on his side. At some point she manages to escape for a while, to look after her friend's little brother but Lino find her quickly and make a deal with her. They cartel takes the kid as insurance. They are still after this Saucedo guy who runs the police, and the beauty pageant, and is trying to take over the cartel's operations. So they set up Gloria to win the pageant so she can get some private time with Saucedo at a party.
Things go as planned and at the party Gloria runs into her friend. There's a revelation and the final confrontation.
The basics of the story are solid for the most part. Miss Bala should be a pretty good action thriller/drama. But somehow it doesn't work all that well. Gloria doesn't make that compelling of a character. As most characters, she's forced to make dumb decisions for the sake of the script and there is not shortage of dumb coincidences. This world of cartels and their victims should be darker and more menacing that what the good-natured Hardwicke portrays.