FILM FACTS
Maria Full of Grace
Director: Joshua Marston
Main Cast: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, Guilied Lopez, John Alex Toro, Patricia Rae
Release Year: 2003
Country: US
Run Time: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
New York-based writer/director Joshua Marston makes his feature film debut with the coming-of-age drama Maria Full of Grace, with a script developed at the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab. Catalina Sandino Moreno plays Maria Alvarez, a teenager living in Bogotá, Colombia. Along with most of the other able-bodied people in her community, she works a perilous job in a flower plantation. She wants to quit, but her large family depends on her meager salary. One day, Maria meets a smooth-talking young man named Franklin. He offers her a business proposition to make some money and travel. However, the task involves her acting as a drug mule and smuggling heroin into the U.S.Maria Full of Grace premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the dramatic competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Review
Joshua Marston's dramatically potent Maria Full of Grace could easily have been a preachy issue film, but the filmmaker's eye and ear for authentic detail and believable characterization, the exquisite lead performance of Catalina Sandina Moreno (in her film debut), and the typically crisp, immediate handheld camerawork of genius cinematographer Jim Denault (Boys Don't Cry) make the film an unusually tough and gritty slice of underworld life. The horrific situation in which Maria finds herself stems organically from her steely temperament and her desperate, unfulfilled circumstances. Moreno's assured performance conveys both Maria's tough willfulness and her underlying uncertainty. Marston's film is at its strongest in focusing on the small, fascinating details of Maria's life, as she gives up demeaning sweatshop labor at a rose plantation to enter the drug trade. The scenes of heroin being processed and ingested for transport by Maria in her newfound occupation are darkly fascinating, as are the excruciatingly tense scenes that follow on the airplane, and at the airport after Maria arrives in New York. Some elements of the coming-of-age story are familiar, but Marston's attention to detail and the film's effective naturalistic presentation make it all very fresh and gripping. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Cast
Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Alvarez
Yenny Paola Vega - Blanca
Guilied Lopez - Lucy
John Alex Toro - Franklin
Patricia Rae - Carla
Wilson Guerrero - Juan; Jaime Osorio Gomez - Javier; Johanna Andrea Mora - Diana; Orlando Tobon - Don Fernando; Fernando Velasquez - Pablo; Eddie Trucco - Customs Inspector; Patrick Rameau - Taxi Driver; Selenis Leyva - Customs Inspector; Virgina Ariza - Juana; Rodrigo Sanchez Borhorquez - Supervisor; Charles Albert Patino - Felipe; Evangelina Morales - Rosita; Fabricio Suarez - Pacho; Mateo Suarez - Pacho; Juana Guarderas - Female Pharmacist; Victor Macias - Pellet Maker; Hugo Ferro - Pharmacist; Ana Maria Acosta - Stewardess; Ada Vergara De Solano - Carolina; Maria Consuelo Perez - Constanza; Juan Porras Hincapie - Wilson; Oscar Bejarano - Carlos; Singkhan Bandit - Gas Attendant; Monique Curnen - Receptionist; Lourdes Martin - Doctor; Osvaldo Plasencia - Enrique
Credits
Debbie de Villa - Production Designer; Lee Percy - Editor; Jim Denault - Cinematographer; Elly Long Marshall - Casting; Marie E. Nelson - Casting; Alex Wolfe - Sound/Sound Designer; Anne McCabe - Editor; Jorge Valencia - Casting; Paul S. Mezey - Producer; Lauren Press - Costume Designer; Rodrigo Guerrero - Associate Producer; Carrie Fix - First Assistant Director; Sarah Beers - Costume Designer; Monica Marulanda - Production Designer; Leonardo Heiblum - Composer (Music Score); Jacobo Lieberman - Composer (Music Score); Joshua Marston - Director; Joshua Marston - Screenwriter; Orlando Tobon - Associate Producer; Jaime Osorio Gomez - Co-producer; Becky Glupczynski - Line Producer; Yann Blanc - Art Director; Lynn Fainchtein - Makeup Supervisor; El Barco Producciones - Casting; Maria Eugenia Salazar - Casting
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