Maria Full of Grace Review
by Ryan Ellis (flickershows AT hotmail DOT com)August 23rd, 2004
Maria Full Of Grace
reviewed by Ryan Ellis
August 20, 2004
My Tagline---Maria the mule...she's full of drugs and coming to America
It's rare that a movie's best moments come right in the middle of the picture. 'Maria Full Of Grace' starts off and ends up down the same path as dozens of other "a gutsy loner struggles to find her place in the world" stories. These parts of the movie aren't putrid; they're just nothing special. But the way in which rookie writer/director Joshua Marston documents how young women act as drug "mules" IS special. Maria is too young and brash to have much grace, but that's not the point. She's full of other things, sometimes youthful stupidity. Bottom line---the title of the film refers to the 62 heroin pellets (and maybe something else) in her belly.
Maria is played by newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno. She's only 23---the character is 17---but Moreno clearly has a future in the business...and not just because she's absolutely beautiful. She brings a reality to her scenes and does more to create sympathy for Maria than Marston's script does. The character is not particularly bright, but she knows when a juicy chance for better things is right in front of her. She's had enough of her rose-dethorning job in her native Colombia. She's had enough of her one-track-mind boyfriend. And she's had enough of being the breadwinner, especially when the entire family is relying on Maria for financial support.
That pushy little tease known as Opportunity taps on her door, but she's understandably wishy-washy about opening up. A new friend has a way out of this drudgery, but this is no 'Cinderella' story...far from it. He's a recruiter for a local heroin seller. The way it works is, Colombian drug dealers wrap dozens of small portions of their product into a condom-like material and get the all-or-nothing girls to swallow as many as they can. Then it's time to fly to America, where they crap out the merchandise and collect their handsome fee for this dangerous service.
The tagline says this is "based on a 1,000 true stories". I don't doubt that. It might sound ingenious to smuggle heroin into the drug-loving United States this way, but suspicious airport officials are sharper than private detectives. Not only does Maria have a hard time swallowing the H, she and her co-mules are terrified a pellet could split open and kill them. Almost as bad, they could be caught by authorities and sent to jail. Talk about a high-risk job. Obviously, those who have nothing to live for think it's worth the risk. I wonder how often this actual operation continues to happen. I also wonder if Marston faces retribution from the drug cartels for blowing the lid off one of their scams...
Once in New York (well, they spend some time in New Jersey first), Maria fears for her life. One of the other mules didn't survive the trip (another one was arrested at the airport) and our heroine takes her only remaining friend out of the seedy hotel and to the Big Apple. They've got nowhere to go and now they've got some rough punks after them. Maria cons her way into the loving home of the dead friend's sister. The actors are good in these scenes, but---as far as I'm concerned---this story was over when Maria got out of that airport alive. It's all downhill after that, and the movie is only about half over.
So does a fine performance by the lovely leading lady and a dynamite middle section make 'Maria Full Of Grace' worth a peek? Well, I just can't say enough about that mule sequence. It's riveting. The way Marston assembles the entire drug-shipping scene is documentary-like and very powerful. But just about everything else is derivative. Maria's Colombian friends & family are bickering, unsupportive twits. [At least the people she meets in America are interesting.] OF COURSE this hopeless kid is going to accept a lucrative offer to travel to another country, especially when she gets to go to the opportunity-laden New York City. And, of course, she'll hit bottom before she manages to climb back up and meet various oddballs along the way. Nothing new here.
At least it seems realistic. The supporting cast is not going to linger in my mind forever, but they're naturalistic in their down-to-earth roles. I liked how Maria's drug boss uses tough talk with her, but he's also got enough common sense to suggest she not go through with it when she doesn't seem to be able to deep-throat a single pellet. He's not above using threats, but he acts more like a guy selling you a stereo than your average movie drug pusher.
The film's poster has a certain religious imagery. Or is it phallic imagery? Maria could be taking the holy wafer into her mouth. Or since it's always men who are holding the strings and dominating her life, the poster could be suggesting that she's performing some sort of fellatio. If she's ever going to escape the life she seems destined to have in Colombia, she's got to get rid of the drugs and the domineering men. It's basically a female empowerment picture, something Joan Crawford or Bette Davis might have been enjoyed. And if I just scared you off by talking about religion, sex, and ancient movie stars, come back. This is all subtext. It won't get in the way unless you let it.
'Maria Full Of Grace' is not a dynamic drug movie like 'Traffic' or 'Requiem For A Dream'. It's a gritty character study made on a tight budget. Oh, and be careful---it's a foreign language film too. The dialogue is perfunctory enough that you wouldn't miss much if you averted your eyes from the subtitles, though. You'll get the gist of what's going on just by watching. Now, that means the screenplay is either airtight (it's not) or Marston has littered it with age-old plot points (he has). But all the same, 'Maria Full Of Grace' has Catalina Sandino Moreno and that thrilling middle section. Those 2 plusses alone outweigh the minuses.
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