Directed by Joshua Marston, Maria Full of Grace shows us a sad side of the Columbia drug trafficking story - the use of young women as drug mules. Maria, a pregnant seventeen year-old, fed up with life in her small village supporting her mother and sister on a pittance of a wage de-thorning roses, ends up swallowed (pardon the pun) within the drug world. Soon, we see her and two friends ingesting large pellets of cocaine (in Maria's case sixty-two) then boarding a plane and heading to New York City. What was interesting about this film was how sorry you felt for Maria (played by Catalina Sandino Moreno, who garnered a rightful Oscar nomination for her role). The story get meaty as Maria and a surviving friend wander the streets of New York and become integrated into the world that is an illegal immigrant's lot. In the end, with the drugs returned to the dealers, Maria receives her epiphany... and perhaps her grace? Despite the topic and storyline, Maria Full of Grace is a very quiet movie that delivers on character development and plot and is well worth viewing for Moreno's performance and to understand the (warning: preachy moment) evil drugs continue to wreak on South America's poorest peoples.
My rating 7 out of 10.
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