Review: "MARIA FULL OF GRACE" Remains a Timely Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 15 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Maria Full of Grace (2004)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA/Columbia; Language: Spanish/English

Running time:  101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)

Rating: MPAA – R for drug content and language

WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Joshua Marston

PRODUCER:  Paul S. Mezey

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jim Denault

EDITORS:  Anne McCabe and Lee Percy

COMPOSERS:  Leonardo Heiblum and Jacobo Lieberman

Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/CRIME/THRILLER

Starring:  Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, John Alex Toro, Guilied Lopez, Patricia Rae, Orlando Tobon, Fernando Velasquez, and Jaime Osorio Gomez

Maria Full of Grace is a 2004 Spanish-language drama film from writer-director Joshua Marston.  The film is a co-production between the U.S. and Colombia.  Maria Full of Grace focuses on a pregnant Colombian teenager who becomes a drug mule for a trafficking ring in order to make desperately-needed money for her family.

Catalina Sandino Moreno earned a 2005 Oscar nomination in the category of “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” for her performance as a teenage coke mule in Joshua Marston’s Maria Full of Grace.  Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is a spirited 17-year old girl who lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in impoverished rural Columbia.  After learning that she may be pregnant, Maria suddenly quits her job stripping roses at a flower plantation after her boss continually hassles her because of her morning sickness.

She meets a handsome, motorcycle-riding young man named Franklin (John Alex Toro), who introduces her to the risky and ruthless world of international drug trafficking.  She meets his boss, Javier (Jaime Osorio Gomez), who pays Maria a lot of money to swallow over 50 latex pellets containing cocaine.  With the pellets in her stomach, she flies to New York City with three other coke mules, including her friend, Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega) and a somewhat experienced carrier named Lucy (Guilied Lopez), where they are too deliver the drugs to men waiting in a hotel.  Complications arise, and Maria must gain the grace to survive and move towards a brighter future.

Maria Full of Grace is a quiet and compelling drama, but it is also as riveting and as thrilling as the best edge-of-your-seat crime films.  Catalina Sandino Moreno gives a gripping performance as a strong of heart young woman who is quiet savvy in even the worst circumstances.  A lot of Ms. Moreno’s performance is shown through her face and soulful eyes, and she engages her audience without any flashy tricks.  Writer/director Joshua Marston gets similar performances from all of his talented supporting cast, and his film is similar in tone to 2003’s Dirty Pretty Things, meaning that it’s a superb, taut drama that I highly recommend.

8 of 10

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Edited from the original: Sunday, July 20, 2025

NOTES:

2005 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination:  “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Catalina Sandino Moreno)

2005 NAACP Image Awards (NAACP):  1 nomination: “Outstanding Independent or Foreign Film”

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