MARIA FULL OF GRACE
Directed & Written by: Joshua Marston.
Produced by: Paul Mezey.
Director of Photography: Jim Denault.
Edited by: Anne McCabe & Lee Percy.
Music by: Jacobo Lieberman & Leonardo Heiblum.
Released by: HBO Films/Fine Line.
Language: Spanish.
Country of Origin: USA. 101 min. Rated: R.
With: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, Guilied López & Patricia Rae.

During a lunch break, plump and plain Blanca confides to Maria (Moreno) that she was stood up on a date. Maria laughs mockingly, though assuring her friend she’s not laughing at her. In fact, Maria does look down on everyone. She hates her job stripping thorns at a rose plantation, lives in a cramped apartment with four generations of her family, and resents having to give a chunk of her pay to her older sister, a single mother.

The film begins with strong, subtly-acted vignettes of her daily life. There's a flash of disdain as she appraises her mechanic-boyfriend Juan, who hasn't quite matured yet, physically or mentally. She knows all this kid can give her is vendor food, and barely that. (They inevitably break-up in a beautifully written scene.)

The lure of quick and plentiful cash from the drug trade is too powerful to resist. Through a leather-clad young man she meets at a dance, Maria hooks up with a drug lord, Javier, in Bogotá. After passing his test (she lies and adds one year to her 17), she is ordered to fly to New York with several "rolls of film," and is told to dress nicely, but not too flashy. "You don't want to look like a peasant showing off," warns Javier.

The middle of the film, after Maria leaves the Colombian backwater, is harrowing, wrenching and retching - especially the flight to New York. But when Maria lands in America, the linear narrative becomes less sure-footed, requiring leaps of faith that make the film seem too easily resolved. One ordeal follows another, eventually leading Maria to the home of Carla (Patricia Rae), a Colombian immigrant living in Queens. Patricia Rae's performance here is the heart and soul of the film, a counterbalance to the flinty and dissembling Maria.

The title's irony aside, this is a clear-headed and often compelling film. Writer/director Joshua Marston has created an almost Dickensian tale with a refreshingly empathetic protagonist. Far from wide-eyed, Maria knows exactly what she is getting herself into. Determined and opportunistic, she is hardly a victim. She is the best kind of bitch, one who doesn't care what people think. Kent Turner
July 15, 2004