Not a film for the faint hearted, not because it is filled with bullet spraying and blood gushing scenes, but Maria Full Of Grace is filmed with such integrity, that it often resembles a full length documentary instead of a fictional movie.
The first half of the movie where Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno) feels trapped in her life with a boring job and a family to feed, represents a real slice of life that many people living in improverished countries like rural Columbia, where the movie is set, can identify with.
Like most teenagers, Maria has dreams that she wants to realize but feels trapped in the life that she have been given. When an offer comes to make lots of money and change her fate, she decides to trade in by smuggling drugs to New York by swallowing capsules of heroin.
The movie follows a significant transition in the life journey of brave Maria from Columbia to New York, and some very tense moments in the movie as she goes through customs, which reminded me of the intensity that I anticipate when I come back to Australia, even though the most "lethal" objects that I am carrying, is some food from home.
The most significant moral of the movie is where she learns that the most important thing in life is not money (as she initially thought), but the relationships that we have, and how we can hurt the people that we love through most foolish acts that we conjure.
In the face of the recent drug trafficking incidents, this movie was watched under rather uncomfortable conditions but it is worth watching because it allows us to see the impact our actions have on the people that we love and also for Catalina Sandino Moreno's realistic and well deserved Oscar nominated performance.
Rating: 7/10
More Reviews: Amazon; Rotten Tomatoes
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