Python Hyena Maria Full of Grace (2004): Dir: Joshua Marston / Cast: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, Guilied Lopez, Patricia Rae, John Alex Toro: Powerful and provocative film about taking life for granted. Catalina Sandino Moreno plays teenage Maria who quits her job of preparing roses for bouquets when her pregnancy affects constant job irritations. Her mother is constantly borrowing her money and her boyfriend is irresponsible so she accepts an offer to transport drugs to New York. She must swallow pellet size packages of cocaine and make the trip with two other girls, one of whom meets a dire conclusion that has Maria rethinking her decision. Director Joshua Marston gives full view of drug trafficking sparing no suspense in the process. The message is hard hitting and ugly in how those without financial means and no immediate alternatives, are lured into this lifestyle of crime and destruction. Moreno is brilliant as Maria who takes the ultimate risk, sees its ugliness, then yearns for something more. Great supporting cast including Yenny Paola Vega as her best friend Blanca as well as Guilied Lopez and Patricia Rae. The content is disturbing but counters this by being a well crafted independent film with a talking fish to boot. Themes address foolish risks while ignoring the grace freely given within everything we take for granted. Score: 8 / 10

pcrprimer About an hour into the movie, it really struck me as to how somber of a tone the movie had. The movie starts with the bleak surroundings of rural Colombia as we are introduced to Maria, who yearns for something greater than an indifferent boyfriend, lousy job, and over-bearing family. Once she signs up to become a mule, it doesn't become any easier for her. The scene at the airport was tense, and truly leaves the viewer at the edge of their seat. Once they show New York, things are just as grim. The main actress is who truly carries this movie. She really portrays the frustrations, hopes and strength of teenager in a different country who hopes to achieve something and find her place in the world.

fernanda-castro98 caring drugs and a baby, not consuming either...I saw the movie "María Full of Grace", and this is my opinion about the movie. It is a film which creates a lot of suspense, where you don't know what might go wrong in the dangerous journey as a drug mule in New York. There are so many details that have to be so closely calculated in order for her to return home safely, that you don't know what is going to happen even the next couple of seconds. Things can change so drastically so fast but some are still predictable. This movie is about a 17 year old pregnant girl from Colombia. Her name is María and she starts working in the flower business and ends up as a drug mule along with other young girls from the same area. She needs money to take care of her family, which is composed of her mother, her grandmother, her sister, her nephew, and now her future new born. With the money of the flower job, she could contribute to the house, but she wouldn't accept how her boss treated her, so she quit, and then needed a job desperately. She meets a guy who presents her to a guy who could help her, and takes her to a dealer who hires drug mules to transport cocaine from Colombia to New York. She decides to take the risk because she needed the money. In this journey, María travels with her best friend, and with Lucy who both are working the same route as drug mules. Lucy gets sick and they panic so they escape and that is when the drama actually starts. In my opinion the main characters had kind of an awkward character, but maybe this was done on purpose by the director. If this was a strategy, then in my opinion it wasn't very effective because, it didn't help me like the character, I didn't feel that I was in the movie, unlike other movies I have seen. Other than that I think that they did a pretty good job. Except for Lucy's sister, her character just didn't match. María's best friend evoked a feeling of anger on me, because of the fact that she was just so stupid, and just didn't think right, but this I'm sure that was done on purpose. María's family evoke the correct feelings, of not approving what María has done. They are very controlling, and expect a lot from her, which kind of explain the fact why she wanted to do something of her own choice for once. María is aggressive which kind of makes me want to punch her in more than one scene, same with her friend but because she is just so stupid. In the scene where the friend pulls out all the drugs in front of Don Fernando, I didn't like it because she was just too stupid to be true. Also when they ask the dealers for their money, when they should just be glad to be alive. Those are the two scenes that I hated the most because they are too unreal, someone just cant be that stupid. I also didn't like the fact that María hid Lucy's death from her sister and still had the nerve to go and live with her, and lie to her to her face. I liked the scene when the dealers in New York and taking out Lucy;s body, and the other drug mules don't know what happened to her. This part makes more believable, the fact that they are transporting drugs to other countries. It shows the watchers, how dangerous it really is. It also does a good job at showing the risks that job comes with, by showing Lucy's death, and getting the other woman caught. I also liked how they turned around the story when María was almost caught but saved herself because she was pregnant, they make the plot twist seem gentle and more believable. The ending of the movie is unexpected, and I kind of liked that, because most of the movie is pretty predictable. Since the beginning that you get to know how stupid this teenagers are, you know that they are going to do more than a couple stupid things thought the movie, and most of them you can figure them out several minutes before they happen in the movie. For example the fact that the airport guards where going to detain her, was super obvious, and also when they escape the dealers, you kind of figure out where they are headed. The message that mainly popped out to me from the movie is to get to understand the situations of others before judging. Here we get to see how hard life was being on María, and you kind of cut her some slack on her decision. I still think that her decision was kind of irrational and stupid, but the whole story gets more to me than before. It also shows all the risks of this job and all the precautions they have to take. It shows that there are other options, and that most people and not at gunpoint to go down that road, they still have other choices but they don't want to work as hard for them, and this is what ends up getting them into trouble. In my opinion I think this movie is not for kids, I would rate it a PG-13, because it doesn't have anything inappropriate, but it is a heavy movie with a heavy theme. I would recommend this movie to people who are fascinated by current issues and situations in the world, or people that want to make earth a better place by helping. Drug mule are a really big problem and most of this girls, if they had more access to opportunities, they wouldn't feel that obligated to go down the drug dealing road.

maria0298 "Maria Full of Grace", is a Latin American movie directed by Joshua Marston. It tells the story of a 17-year-old Colombian girl who finds herself jobless and is forced to search for a way to keep her family afloat. A film that focuses on a different perspective of life, "Maria Full of Grace" shows how a member of several minority groups (a teenager, a woman, and a Latin American) deals with her circumstances, and how she manages to survive in an often-cruel world.Maria is a pregnant teenage girl who quits her job in a rose plantation when she is mistreated by her employer. Maria and her mother are the only ones that work in the family, so she is pressured to find a profitable job quickly. She is taken to Bogota by a friend, and along the way he tells her about a job as a drug mule. Initially, Maria is not willing to participate in the business, but as her friend describes the possible compensation, she decides to meet the organizer of the trafficking. She meets the man in charge in a bar in Bogota, and he explains what she will have to do; assuring her that it will be a safe, easy and painless job. He gives her a part of the payment ahead and she agrees to come back. Later, she returns to swallow the small bundles of drugs wrapped in latex gloves, boards the plane and leaves for the US. Through her journey, Maria experiences several frightening setbacks. However, she is helped by the people she meets in New York and understands the opportunities that immigrants have in the city. Ultimately, Maria decides to stay in the United States, in order to ensure a brighter future for her unborn child.The characters' portrayals contribute enormously to the story. This is a character-oriented film: Maria is not just a drug mule, another victim of the drug trafficking business. She is a teenage girl who was a family and a life, and she manages to surmount difficulties in a rather composed manner. She is strong-willed and hot-tempered and like every teenager, she is impulsive and unnervingly brave. Actress Catalina Sandino channels the emotions that curse through Maria using different facial expressions and voice tones. Maria's character is believable: whether hated or loved by viewers, it makes us actually wonder about her motivations. The accompanying cast also represents accurately what their characters feel, how they react to adversity and how they have been affected by past experiences. I think one of the most important elements that help an actor accomplish this is his life being connected in some way to the character's life; and this holds true for this film. The actors in the film are Latinos. While their realities may not be exactly the same as their characters', there is a strong connection to stories such as these. As a Latin American girl, I understand how violence, poverty and desperation are connected to every culture, including mine. I should stop and clarify that I am immensely biased. I am a Latina that worships her region's history, culture and people. However, this film was magnificent for me because it showed me a side of Latin America that can't be ignored. The fear and insecurity are as present and real as the beauty and the love that also abound around me. It is a gritty sort of realism that makes this film so attractive, so shocking. It makes the audience feel responsible, because it exposes the point to which some humans are exploited. Thus, I feel that our culture was portrayed well in the movie; from the rural Colombia and the youths during parties, to overwhelming Bogota. I felt identified with what the characters said and did: it was a real Latin American movie, a true portrait of the people we are. I think that the most accomplished scenes were the ones that captured Maria's life: her fight with her sister, her naïve boyfriend, and her talks with her best friend. The biggest lesson I think this movie taught me is that regardless of nationality, class, ethnicity, religion, and political orientation, every human will inevitably have something in common with another human. In every country, immigration is a controversial issue, whether it is Costa Rica or the United States. We have been taught to instinctively fear immigrants or blame immigration as the source of our problems. What this movie really screams out is "Is it anyone's fault to want a better life?" When I finished watching the movie I thought (and still do) that it portrayed Latin America slightly negatively. However, I now understand that one of the major points was not to undermine Latin America, but to make the audience understand what kind of struggle it must be to leave one's own country because of different circumstances. As I have said before, we can all find ourselves in Maria and the rest of the characters. Therefore, I'd recommend this movie to everyone over the age of 15, regardless of the fact that the movie is rated R. The closer we get to the truth, the more we can do to change that truth if we dislike it. We are used to living trapped in prison of comfort; and I call it prison because it not only traps us from doing something radical or different, but it keeps other people away from us: people that need help. Thus, I applaud the director for making a movie that has woken us up and set us free, one by one. Rating: 4.5/5Maria Thompson is a student in sophomore year at Lincoln School in San Jose, Costa Rica. She likes reading and writing. One of her main hobbies is eating, and her favorite food is asparagus. Maria hopes to be involved in politics in the future. Before that though, Maria hopes to learn how to cook.