Maria Full of Grace, starring Catalina Sandino Moreno in the title role, is a moving, dramatic film.
A Colombian, Maria swallows pellets of drugs to bring them to New York. She is, in drug parlance, a mule. She does this simply enough for money — and to escape a loser boyfriend (the father of her unborn child), a demanding mother, an irritating sister and a degrading job.
Maria Full of Grace is almost documentary in style. But it is Maria’s story, not the story of drugs or the drug cartel that is documented. And it is Maria’s story that you should see.
The film is in Spanish with English subtitles.
Five ristras on NewMexiKen’s scale of one-to-five (five being best).
(In the beginning of the film Maria works at a flower plantation trimming the torns from roses. I’d never thought about it before, but I guess the florist doesn’t just snip them out back in his little green house anymore.)
It reminded me a bit of Dirty Pretty Things. There’s the same sense of desperation and the struggle to determine how best to confront an isolating and tragic system.
I loved this movie, too.