DIRECTOR: Joshua Marston
STUDIOS: HBO Films, Alter-Cine, Santa Fe Productions, Tucan Producciones Cinematograficas Ltd.
RATING: R
WEBSITE: www.hbo.com/films/mariafullofgrace
RELEASE DATE: July 16, 2004
Ay Maria!
REVIEW BY CATHERINE KRUMMEY
Writer-director Joshua Marston's Maria Full of Grace tells the story of Maria (Catalina Sandino-Moreno), a 17-year-old girl dealing with life in small-town Colombia.
Maria works in a flower plantation removing thorns from roses, and the working conditions are not ideal, but her family needs the money. One day, Maria asks her boss for permission to go to the bathroom, and he doesn't allow her to. Then, she throws up on the flowers and her boss yells at her. She quits her job, which makes her mother and sister ver upset. Maria also discovers that she is pregnant.
One night, while at a party with best friend Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega), Maria meets a man who later helps her find a job as a drug mule. The job pays $5,000 for each trip to the U.S., so Maria takes it. She meets Lucy (Guilied Lopez), another mule, who helps her practice swallowing the drugs by swallowing large grapes. Blanca also decides to become a drug mule to buy a house for her family.
RANDOM FACT: This is Catalina Sandino-Moreno's first movie role, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.