Maria Full of Grace
Tags: realism, suspenseful, dark, murder

Plot synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Colombian girl Maria Álvarez works in sweat shop-like conditions at a flower plantation. Her income helps support her family, including an unemployed sister who is a single mother, but after unjust treatment from her boss, she quits her job de-thorning roses despite her family's vehement disapproval. Shortly thereafter, Maria discovers she is pregnant by her boyfriend, and he suggests marriage, but she declines because she does not feel she loves him, or that he loves her. On her way to Bogotá to find a new job, she is offered a position as a drug mule. Desperate, she accepts the risky offer and swallows 62 wrapped pellets of drugs and flies to New York City with her friend Blanca, who has also been recruited as a drug mule, and Lucy, who has made the dangerous journey before.
Maria is almost caught by U.S. customs who are suspicious after finding Maria's $800 in cash and wanting to make a surprise visit to a sister she "hasn't seen in years," but not knowing anywhere else to go if she isn't home. She tells them that the father of her child paid for her plane ticket. She avoids being X-rayed due to her pregnancy, and is released. The traffickers collect Maria, Blanca and Lucy, another more experienced mule that Maria had befriended during her recruitment. The mules are held in a motel room until they pass all the drug pellets. Lucy falls ill when a drug pellet apparently ruptures inside her. Unknown to the traffickers, Maria witnesses them carrying Lucy out of the hotel room, and she sees blood stains in the bathtub. She comes to the conclusion that the traffickers cut her open to retrieve the other drug pellets inside her body. Scared, Maria convinces Blanca to escape with her while the traffickers are gone. They leave with the drugs they have passed.
Maria has nowhere to sleep and goes to Lucy's sister's house but doesn't reveal to the sister that Lucy is dead. Blanca soon joins her there. Eventually the sister unexpectedly hears of their involvement in her sister's death and throws them out. Blanca and Maria make an agreement to return the drugs to the traffickers and receive their money. Maria uses some of her drug money to send Lucy's body home to Colombia for a proper burial. Maria and Blanca are ready to board the plane back to Colombia when Maria decides to stay in the United States. Blanca returns home without Maria.

Review: The rather straightforward story only makes the movie feel more convincing - not at all contrived.Maria Alvarez, played by previous unknown Catalina Sandino Moreno, is a seventeen year old who falls into the sticky-sweet trap of seeking a quick escape from the drudgery and hopelessness of her mundane existence.
Of course, Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria) is so graced with natural beauty and she projects such a gentle and humble manner that one can't really help but feel empathy for her character.
It's COCAINE!Small film about a big business.Poverty, desperation and bravery spiral into a mess and culminate in pregnant 17-year-old Maria sitting in a room, trying to swallow 60 plastic capsules full of narcotics to smuggle for money.
Maria: Full of Grace (2004) is a clear-eyed and relevant portrayal of a young girl in Columbia being exploited by the drug industry - in spite of its dark material, it projects a lot of heart and spirit.They say that reality is often more frightening than fiction - and this is true for this film; it is so realistic and down-to-earth that it becomes harrowing in almost every scene.
She knows what she needs to do, and she does it like she means business.The above is also true for Joshua Marston's Maria: Full of Grace (2004) - it does not preach about morals; there is no melodrama, politics, sugar-coating romances or effects, but an understated yet brutal depiction of a young girl's journey in learning to cope and be responsible.
In Joshua Marston's small budget film Maria Full of Grace, a headstrong Colombian girl of seventeen (Catalina Sandino Moreno), determined to escape from a country where the average annual income is about $1700 US, seizes an opportunity to earn $5000 by ingesting and transporting illegal drugs to New York at considerable risk to herself and her unborn child.
Inspired by a woman in his Brooklyn neighborhood who told him her story of swallowing capsules of heroin and boarding a plane for the United States, first-time director Marston has escaped the clichés of social realist films to offer a riveting human odyssey that transcends simplistic messages of good and evil.
Feeling trapped, she quickly accepts when Franklin (Jhon Alex Toro), a friend she recently met at a dance, offers her a huge sum of money to smuggle drugs into the U.S. The trick is that she must swallow up to 100 heroin pellets sealed with latex and dental floss, knowing that certain death follows if one of them bursts.
Winner of the Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance and two major awards at the Berlin Film Festival, Maria Full of Grace is not only a hard-hitting jab at a global economic system that allows exploitation of the poor to satisfy the pleasure of the rich, but a richly nuanced coming-of-age story that delivers its hard-edged message with understanding and compassion.
When I first heard about María Llena eres de Gracia and its subject, I had many doubts about the treatment of such a delicate subject and how Colombian this movie was, with a writer/director from the USA; but when I heard the interviews and read de reviews I got really interested in the film and went to see it as soon as I could.The first thing that must be highlighted about this film is the treatment of the drug dealing problem.
In this kind of movies is really easy to fall in the conventions and make a story full of clichés with police chases and all powerful heroes, but not, fortunately the director takes another perspective and gets into the life of the 'Mulas', and shows the whole picture without any prejudgment.
Is admirable how a person that had never been in Colombia, before the movie, understands the problem and shows it in a so delicate and powerful way, and is able to put it in the big screen without extremes so common in films about Latin America made by foreign directors, as an example watch Len Loach's Carla's Song.
The story of the movie is quite simple: a 17 years old girl has many economic problems and takes the 'mule' work as an opportunity to get the money she needs.
The movie changed the cover, for commercial reasons of course, and that is a shame, because the first one was really beautiful, it showed Maria in the airport in the middle of a group as if she were in a procession, but the new one although good is more obvious and drug oriented and lacks the delicacy of the film.
"Maria Full of Grace" tells the tale of an impoverished 17 year old Colombian who becomes pregnant and, in need of money, signs on as a drug "mule", smuggling cocaine pellets into the US in her GI tract.
From the beginning to the end Joshua Marston chooses to present the story in a way that has us relating and sympathizing with Maria in her plight to find her place in the sun.A very real topic with very real portrayal and acting, this is definitely one of the better films to come out.
In a small village in Colombia, the pregnant seventeen years old Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) supports her family with her salary working in a floriculture.
Once in New York, things do not happen as planned."Maria Full of Grace" is a very powerful and real movie about the lack of perspective in the life of teenagers in poor countries.
It probably sounds depressing -- three girls from a village in Colombia find themselves broke, are hired as mules to smuggle drugs into New York by swallowing little condoms full, get mixed up with unfeeling and possibly murderous receivers in America, and find themselves almost broke again, or worse.But this is almost a documentary of what these young girls go through.
Catalina Sandino Moreno, with her Oscar nomination as best actress in María Llena de Gracia (Maria Full of Grace) was the first Colombian, moreover, the first Spanish-speaking actress, no less, to receive a nomination in this category.In 1960, for the first time, two actresses received nominations in this category for roles in movies filmed other languages: Greek and Italian.
However, there was a feeling of anxiety and discomfort in both of these scenes; it feels almost as if you are not a member of an audience, but actually one of the mules, and that is not what I would consider a good feeling.Therefore, Maria Full of Grace manages to do what I foolishly believed was impossible for modern filmmakers to comprehend; to create a gripping story based on a relatively simple plot; to use long shots and plain backgrounds and still manage to keep an audience's attention; to go easy on music and sound effects; and to go light on unnecessary dialogue.
Amen.' In `Maria Full of Grace' writer/director Joshua Marston (`Bus to Queens') takes the flip side of `Midnight Express'(1978) to create a cinema verite version of distaff `mules' who don't suffer the outrages of `Express's' Turkish prison but who do endure one of the most harrowing depictions of drug smuggling ever involving innocents.
For those young women `Hail Mary' seems not enough to help.Maria from Colombia (gifted newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno) agrees to transport drugs in her stomach to New York.
Marston's detailed eye is not so much interested in religious motifs as he is in fully detailing the characters' lives in impoverished Colombia, the claustrophobic flight with other mules, and Maria's gymnastics in the rest room (Those of us who have tried to perform any intricate movement in these little prisons know what I'm saying).
And this is not really good cinema, just a simple and fair story of a young girl in Colombia, obliged by poverty to become a 'human mule' carrying drugs in her stomach, told in a quite melodramatic manner.
A documentive sledge hammer, displaying the real, unglamorous side of drug trafficking and the people that it really effects."Maria Full of Grace," is an extremely powerful film that forces you to edge of tears and worst of all, leaves its toughest questions unanswered.
Unlike another frank recent film, "Lilja 4-ever," about a restless young woman in a poor country yearning for something better who also winds up cruelly exploited, Maria is able to keep her spunk and dignity, as indicated in the title and especially as portrayed brilliantly by Catalina Sandino Moreno.
Her innocence and desire to do the right thing comes into sharp contrast with the reality of money and power.Near the latter portions of the story, you are on edge of your seat with fear of what might happen to the young women as she tries to juggle the lies and secrets to stay one step ahead of the game.Catalina Sandino Moreno is superb in her portrayal of the young protagonist and she brings depth and compassion to her character.
Maria Full Of Grace keeps things simple, offering up a tight and beautifully crafted character study of a resourceful young Colombian girl's involvement in a ruthless and often brutal industry.
We follow Maria from quitting her soulless job as a rose de-thorner in a Colombian factory, through taking up the offer of acting as a mule, to her facing an increasingly desperate situation upon arrival in New York.
We are with her every step of the way and, though she makes a lot of wrong decisions, one can't help feeling that she always makes them for the right reasons.Much of the success of the film can be apportioned to Catalina Sandino Moreno, with a performance utterly deserving of the movie's title.
Maria Full of Grace is not really a movie about drugs at all - at its heart is a deeply affecting and highly intimate portrayal of a young girl learning the meaning of responsibility.
The three main characters in Maria Full of Grace decide to take on a job as a drug mule.
You get to see with gut-wrenching realism the lives these young women lead that force them into this work and the drug lords who view them as nothing more than packaging for their shipments.A stunning feature debut from Director Joshua Marston, Maria Full of Grace takes the time to create fully developed, three dimensional characters of its leads.
From meeting the drug lords in a seedy dive, to the creation of pellets, swallowing over-sized grapes without gagging as practice, being fed the pellets, and the final warning about ensure that all the product gets delivered.The final act takes place in New York and it is heart-wrenching and compelling and must be seen and not read about here.Maria is presented as a victim, but the film does not completely evoke sympathy.
This is a powerful movie and the lead actress, Catalina Sandino Moreno (inexplicably buried in IMDb credit listings), is superb as the young woman who agrees to serve as a "mule" for Colombian drug runners as away to escape her miserable, futureless life in rural Colombia.
What I think deserves special mention here is that the kindly neighborhood social service fixer and community pillar "Don Fernando" who helps out Maria when she washes up in Queens, NY is played by real-life hero Orlando Tobon, the "Mayor of Little Colombia" who I heard about ten or so years ago when he first attracted media attention as "the undertaker of the mules"; raising money to send home, or at least give a decent burial to, the unclaimed bodies of unfortunate drug couriers whose deadly cargo had fatally leaked inside them.
It followed young Maria from her dead end job stripping roses in Colombia to a new opportunity...becoming a "mule"...ingesting drugs in large capsules and smuggling them to the United States.
There are other instances as well where I felt that Maria had it easy, but I don't want to spoil anything.The acting is pretty great with Catalina Moreno doing her part of a young, innocent girl trying to make fast hard cash without really knowing the consequences.
That is why, she is a heroine for her future."Maria Full of Grace" is a valuable movie to watch because it demonstrates the struggles of a young girl weaving into a dangerous business in order to survive.
Fortunately, the traveler in this drama only has to learn to swallow condoms filled with heroin.Pregnant and unemployed, 17-year-old Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is presented with an offer to mule drugs from Columbia to New York.Needing the money to support her sister and niece, Maria agrees to consume over 60 bundles of the lethal narcotic.When she lands in the States, Maria and the other female mules are rounded up and taken to a safe house where they are expected to expel their cargo.Frightened, Maria and her friend flee from the traffickers with the heroin in hand.
A truly depressing film about the lengths some will go to to provide for themselves and their families.Catalina Sandino Moreno received an Oscar nomination for playing Maria, a young woman who agrees to act as a drug mule in order to raise money for her poor family.
Her life is in constant danger; if one of the pellets breaks while inside her, she'll die instantly (as does one of the girls smuggling drugs with her)."Maria Full of Grace" is the kind of movie that makes you feel like you have things unbelievably easy and makes you guilty for complaining about your mundane problems.Grade: A.
Make no mistake about it.....its sad cause not only is Maria full of Grace and a baby...but also full of cocaine.Good story, great acting, and its only like 110 minutes so it doesn't waste your time with nonsense..
Great for the first time actress Catalina  she never thought of taking acting as a career before this movie.Director Joshua Marston does a commendable job with low budget, hand held camera, soft, natural look to the film.
Starring the beautiful Catalina Sandino Moreno in an Oscar-nominated role as the titular Maria, the film presents us with a story of a young, pregnant Colombian girl who becomes a drug mule after getting sacked from her menial job at a flower farm.
And in the end we see the triumph of Maria's character.What makes this such an outstanding movie is not only the careful, clear and veracious way that Marston tells the story, but the compelling performance by Catalina Sandino Moreno who plays Maria.
Marston puts it this way, "I realized...I was making a film about a girl who was doing something universal in trying to figure out the meaning of her life." This is really what the story is about: becoming a woman in this world of risks and trade-offs, of dangers and obligations.A movie that is a work of art and worthy of something more than the diversion of an evening should affect the viewer emotionally, intellectually and artistically.
"Mary Full of Grace" is there for you to check out and Catalina Sandino Moreno, who plays the protagonist in a very nice and talented way - she was a nominee for the Oscar - is a clear evidence that countries like Colombia, with small tradition in international cinema, also have very good actors.The film may also work as a portrait of the hard social situation many people live nowadays.
It's a movie about a 17-year old girl in a small town in Colombia named María (Catalina Sandino Moreno) who works in a factory cutting roses, but is unsatisfied with her job, and is the sole provider for a family that includes her mother, her older sister, and her sister's baby.
The rest of the unknown cast seems incidental by comparison, though there is solid work by Moreno look-alike Guilied Lopez as Lucy, the more experienced mule facing inner turmoil about her decision; Patricia Rae especially powerful in her few scenes as Carla, Lucy's estranged sister living in New York (her no-nonsense but sympathetic character reminds me a bit of the roles Frances McDormand usually takes); and Yenny Paola Vega as Maria's clingy, foolhardy friend Blanca.As expected, the pellet ingestion scene is painful to watch, and there is some overly convenient wrap-up toward the end that seems to oversimplify the problems Marston painstakingly presents.
Maria Full of Grace is an exciting and touching movie about a 17 year-old- girl who accepts to work as a mule after quitting her old job in a rose factory.She takes the risk because being from a very small town in Columbia,she will have the opportunity to travel to New York and earn $5,000 doing so.
For being a first time director and for being American, Joshua Marston does a fantastic job in depicting what life is like for people living in villages like Maria's..
Maria Full Of Grace is a very good movie about a different type of drug trafficking that I had never heard of before called being a mule (mula).
Catalina Sandino Moreno is fascinating to watch as a young Columbian girl who trades her dignity for exposure to the criminal world out of desperation to get money for her family by becoming a drug mule and smuggling the goods into the United States using her stomach filled with pellets that are loaded with drugs.
This is the harrowing story of a (not quite) typical mule: Maria Alvarez (Moreno), an intelligent and fiercely independent 17-year-old girl from Colombia who agrees to smuggle a half-kilo of heroin into the United States.My third favorite foreign language film (#1 City of God #2 Battle Royale) This film deals with a very disturbing circumstances, which in fact, are real in this world we live in.
Maria Full of Grace tells the story of a 17 year old Colombian girl, Maria Alvarez, who works as a drug mule out of desperation.
In "Maria Full of Grace", Catalina Sandino Moreno plays Maria, a 17-year-old Columbian girl who, frustrated with her job in a flower plant de-thorning roses, and in need of more income, decides to become a drug mule for traffickers in her town.