Maria Full of Grace

Susan Granger’s review of “Maria Full of Grace” (Fine Line Features/HBO Films)

Imagine being a pregnant 17 year-old in rural Colombia, South America, who is so desperate that she’s willing to smuggle drugs in her stomach for a life-changing $5,000. That’s the premise for this harrowing, frighteningly authentic drama from first-time writer-director Joshua Marston. Before she became a drug mule, Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno) had impulsively quit her dead-end job at a flower plantation where she stripped thorns off roses for export to wealthier countries. Then she was offered an irresistible “get-rich-quick” opportunity: swallow some drug pellets, board a plane and fly to New York and deliver the cargo she’s carried in her belly. A glib, motorcycle-riding recruiter, Franklin (Jhon Alex Toro), assures her that only those who wish to become “famous” get caught. What he doesn’t reveal is that Maria, under the guidance of Lucy (Guilied Lopez), an experienced mule, will have to ingest 62 latex-coated pellets at 10 grams each, amounting to more than a pound of pure heroin, along with medicine to slow her digestive system. Her potentially deadly journey as an illicit courier is terrifying, but then she’s interrogated at JFK and shipped off to New Jersey, where she’s held prisoner. Finally, she winds up with Lucy’s pregnant sister (Patricia Rae) in the sheltering borough of Queens. A real-life native of Bogota, Colombia, screen newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno is electrifying, and it’s easy to see why this spellbinding performance tied with Charlize Theron’s for the Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival. In Spanish with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Maria Full of Grace” is a graphic, profoundly disturbing 8, revealing one young woman’s perilous attempt to escape a bleak future of abject poverty.

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