| MARIA FULL OF GRACE Maria, llena eres de gracia |
 2004 - USA / ColombiaDirector: Joshua Marston - Reviewed by Vickie
Catalina Sandino Moreno—who looks like the love child of Jill Hennessy and Catherine Zeta-Jones—stars as Maria Alvarez, a Colombian teenager working as a de-thorner for a rose distribution company. Fed up with the poor treatment she receives and anxious for a better job, she quits. Unfortunately for Maria, she's the primary breadwinner in her household of women, and without a regular paycheck the family will suffer. When casual acquaintance Franklin (John Alex Toro) pulls up on his motorbike and suggests Maria take a job as a drug mule, the opportunity seems too lucrative to pass up. Maria is befriended by Lucy (Guilied Lopez), a perpetually sad-faced fellow mule, whose expressions and body language scream out that she's more sorry than humanly possible about the line of work she's chosen for herself. Lucy's only done two jobs, but the aging druglord at the helm of the operation makes it pretty clear from the get-go that once you sign on, you're in for good. So, like Henry Higgins to Maria's Eliza Doolittle, Lucy shows her the ropes. How to dress. How to swallow the rubber-case drug pellets that are about the size of a large kumquat. And she also issues an ominous caveat about having a pellet rupture in the stomach that you know is a hint of what might spring up later. Also along for the perilous ride is Maria's naive best friend Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega), who follows Maria into the trafficking business but who's such a wide-eyed tag-along that you're just waiting for her to inadvertently do something dangerously foolish. When all three women, stomachs laden with dozens and dozens of drug pellets, board a plane for New York, the film's tone shifts to become one of survival amid seriously adverse conditions. Writer-director Joshua Marston's story unfolds nicely, allowing glimpses into Maria's home life and personal affairs in Colombia before she makes her way to the U.S. Once on American soil, the action tends to meander a little bit, and it's not always clear where things are headed or why. For a while, it seemed like an entirely different movie was getting underway, but things thankfully settled into place for what then turned out to be a bit of an open-ended conclusion. Much of the credit for the compelling film goes to Moreno, who won SIFF's Golden Space Needle award for best actress last month, and tied with Charlize Theron's Monster turn for the same trophy at the Berlin Film Fest . With relatively sparse dialogue, she conveys a myriad of emotions on the screen—frustration, fear, sadness, hopelessness, doubt and, as the title explains, grace. Her Maria is a young woman struggling to make the best of a bad situation, and who winds up getting in over her head as a result. But she never loses faith, never gives up, never gives in. She's fascinating to watch. Equally strong is Lopez, whose heartbreaking eyes provide the window to her character's shattered soul. Maria Full of Grace is a solid character study that's more about the people than the situations they're in. It's a cautionary tale, but one with tiny glimmers of optimism in a mildly overwhelming vortex of unfortunate circumstances for its players. In other words, it's kind of a downer, but it's really good. |
| Home | Currently Playing | For Rent | Video Obsession ©2004 Moviepie e-mail us |
A lot goes unsaid in Maria Full of Grace. Not that there isn't a
lot to say, because there is. But this measured drama about a
17-year-old drug mule from Colombia is blessed with such a gifted cast
that details don't need to be spoken and spelled out, or even
referenced, because it's all right there on the characters' faces.
