Joshua Marston follows up his 1999 directorial debut (the award-winning “Bus to Queens,” which picked up a Best of Festival award at Nashville’s Independent Film Festival) with a touching look into the life of a poverty-stricken young Colombian girl in his first feature film, “Maria Full of Grace.”
This quiet indie flick starts off thick in the midst of 17-year-old Maria Alvarez’s (played by newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno, a native of Bogota, Colombia, who moved to New York in 2003) chaotic life, living in an overcrowded house, working at a fiercely unrelenting flower job (where she de-thorns flowers in a massive green room packed to the hilt with other underpaid workers) and dealing with a dead-end romance. But Moreno quickly transforms Maria into a complicated, restless teen looking for more than the cookie-cutter family life she sees as her future.
Maria quits her job after an incident that subtly (or not-so-subtly upon retrospect) reveals she’s become pregnant. But her sister, raising a newborn, and her mother convey the urgency of making some money to support the family, and on the way to an interview for a maid position in Bogota, Maria bumps into the jovial stranger, Franklin (John Alex Toro, “Tres Hombres Tres Mujeres”). After a quick discussion, Franklin’s coaxing leads Maria to a job as a mule. The perilous position requires Maria to smuggle drugs into New Jersey via her digestive system. Maria jumps on the opportunity to make millions of pesos for five days of work.
“Maria Full of Grace” could easily have drifted into a realm tainted by overt commentary or mediocre neo-journalism, but instead Marston strictly adheres to a straightforward character study, smartly relying upon Moreno’s inherent talent to motivate plot development through few words to propel the film to its natural conclusions.
Viewers are also immersed within the Colombian teenager’s mind, as Maria’s best friend — the annoyingly placid Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega’s debut performance) becomes another mule and Maria’s mysterious new friend Lucy (Guilied Lopez) reveals the tricks to pulling off the dangerous gig.
Lucy teaches Maria how to swallow grapes (which seems like an easy feat compared to the real thing) without gagging and tells her that if even one of the 50-70 (larger mules can hold up to 100) pellets breaks, she will die. And Marston makes these acts, Maria preparing to ingest mass quantities of illegal drugs, seem like a normal circumstance for a teenage girl, as Maria candidly practices swallowing grapes in her dingy bathroom.
The film reaches its first breaking point during the climactic plane ride from Colombia to Newark. Marston sets adrenaline levels pumping with the atmospheric journey stretching into a pulse-pounding workout. Maria learns that the plane is filled with mules (easier for the others to make it past security if one of them gets caught) and she meets up with both Lucy (who was unwittingly pulled in for another job) and Blanca. After stomach troubles (and the sickening task of re-ingesting a few pellets) Maria learns that Lucy isn’t feeling well and needs a doctor. The rest of the trip continues to build tension masterfully, leading toward another nail-biting sequence when Maria gets pulled into an interrogation room while waiting for her singular piece of luggage. Though nearly incarcerated, Maria escapes (thanks to her untimely pregnancy) and is violently tugged off the street by a van of drug-dealing lowlifes.
Marston could have easily wilted this story into a drug-riddled thriller, wearing down “Maria Full of Grace’s” dreamy atmospherics into yet another gritty tale of heart-wrenching disaster. Instead, everything the viewer witnesses is filtered through the hefty viewpoint of Maria, as her hometown boredom transcends into a latent restlessness that finds her floating in and out of suspenseful situations.
After Lucy is ruthlessly dispensed of, Maria finds her way through the mass of New York and winds up in the care of Lucy’s sister, Carla (Patricia Rae, “Swimfan”). While Rae’s performance sometimes dwindles, Moreno’s wide-eyed awe makes Maria’s city experience a new focal point, again thrusting Maria toward an unknown but exciting future.
Marston’s film has already garnered massive acclaim, winning prestigious awards around the globe (including high honors at Sundance, Berlin, Deauville and the Los Angeles IFP/West Film Festival), and Moreno racked up a Golden Space Needle Best Actress win at Seattle’s International Film Festival. This sleepy human story will find its way onto a slew of “Best of” lists, but it will be Moreno’s world-weary spirit that will light up future features. Be on the lookout.
Grade: A/B
