Maria: Full of Grace (R)
Unflinching drama of the journey of a drug mule.
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- Studio: Fine Line Features
- Directed By: Joshua Marston
- Cast: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Virginia Ariza, Yenny Paola Vega
- Running Time: 101 minutes
- Release Date: 07/16/2004
- Video/DVD Release Date: 12/12/2004
- Genre: Drama
- MPAA Rating: R
- MPAA Explanation: drug content and language.
Parents need to know
Families can talk about the fact that smaller movies are often grittier than big-budget pictures. Why do you think that is? How would this movie have been different if Jennifer Lopez had played the lead? Would it have been as effective?
Message
Social Behavior:
Maria is a complicated character. She illegally transports drugs (while pregnant). But she's also caught in a difficult world, and in the end finds her inner strength.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Teen drinking, drinking while pregnant, humans used as vessels for transportation of drug pellets.
Violence
Graphically bloody scene depicting aftermath of drug-transporting accident.
Sex
Mild teenage foreplay, sexual discussions regarding pregnancy.
Language
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by David Gurney
Struggling to help her family survive, Maria Alvarez, a Colombian teen, works under tough conditions in a flower factory. Pushed too far by her supervisor, she quits her job, and very soon after, she meets Franklin, a young man who suggests that she act as a drug mule -- swallowing packets of heroin to smuggle them into the U.S. Although she makes it out safely, things quickly get out of her control, and she finds herself both in a foreign country and in a dangerous predicament.
Is it any good?
At times agonizing to watch due to its detailed execution, MARIA FULL OF GRACE is a powerful film, sure to affect almost any viewer. In Maria, actor Catalina Sandino Moreno creates a character with which most people will find it hard not to sympathize, and for such a relentlessly distressing story, her high level of charisma is crucial to keep viewers watching.
This is a gritty -- almost documentary-like -- look at what it's like to be a drug mule. It certainly doesn't glamorize drug culture (one mule is caught by police, another becomes deathly ill after swallowing her balloons, but Maria eventually emerges a stronger person). But the movie doesn't condemn Maria for making tough choices; in the end, she has emerged a stronger person.
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Parents and kids say
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