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Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, Guilied Lopez, John Álex Toro, Patricia Rae ... see more see more... , Wilson Guerrero , Jaime Osorio Gomez , Johanna Andrea Mora , Orlando Tobon , Fernando Joel Velasquez , Eddie Trucco , Patrick Rameau , Selenis Leyva , Virgina Ariza , Rodrigo Sanchez Borhorquez , Charles Albert Patino , Evangelina Morales , Fabricio Suarez , Mateo Suarez , Juana Guarderas , Victor Macias , Hugo Ferro , Ana Maria Acosta , Ada Vergara De Solano , Maria Consuelo Perez , Juan Porras Hincapie , Oscar Bejarano , Singkhan Bandit , Monique Curnen , Lourdes Martin , Osvaldo Plasencia , Diana Dumbrava

New York-based writer/director Joshua Marston makes his feature film debut with the coming-of-age drama Maria Full of Grace, with a script developed at the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab. Catalina Sandin... read more read more...o Moreno plays Maria Alvarez, a teenager living in Bogotá, Colombia. Along with most of the other able-bodied people in her community, she works a perilous job in a flower plantation. She wants to quit, but her large family depends on her meager salary. One day, Maria meets a smooth-talking young man named Franklin. He offers her a business proposition to make some money and travel. However, the task involves her acting as a drug mule and smuggling heroin into the U.S. Maria Full of Grace premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the dramatic competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Flixster Users

84% liked it

38,221 ratings

Critics

97% liked it

138 critics

R, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Joshua Marston

Release Date: July 16, 2004

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DVD Release Date: December 7, 2004

Stats: 1,884 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,884)

  • fb619846742
    May 7, 2010
    fb619846742
    An original take on the drug trade, dealing with a seventeen year old girl (Catalina Sandino Moreno) who, pressured to find a job, agrees to become a drug mule, since the pay is good and it sounds like she will be taken care of. You don't know what to expect really after she agre... read morees to take the job, and neither does she. An overall incredible film with a powerful performance from Moreno (she got nominated for Best Actress). Although it loses a little steam in it's last half, this is a mostly excellent movie that feels authentic all the way through.
  • 76Majikat
    August 28, 2009
    76Majikat
    An impressive film which shows a realistic story based around drug muelling. Great performances all around, but particularly from Catalina Sandino Moreno who played the lead character.

    A Drama which really pulls you in and see the circumstances from different viewpoints.

    ... read moreDefinitely a recommendation ? an instant favourite for me.
  • flixsterman
    June 25, 2009
    flixsterman
    A beautiful Colombian teenager discovers that 'easy money' isn't always so easy when she gets lured into the harsh, dangerous world of drug trafficking.

    In order for a so-called 'message film' to work there has to be at least one character that an audience can really care about... read more, Maria Full of Grace has an abundance of them. A talented cast and no-nonsense scripting elevate this somewhat predictable storyline to something meaningful and moving. Four Stars.
  • purplemegan
    September 7, 2007
    purplemegan
    Really really good movie. For some reason I didn't realize it was in Spanish but I love Spanish movies. It was very real and sucked me in.
  • jennifxu
    May 30, 2007
    jennifxu
    very powerful and gripping story. and good wordplay with the hail mary prayer thing.
  • ceWEBrity
    February 13, 2007
    ceWEBrity
    Well-performed and fairly strong for such a low budget film, but rather thin. Not much actually happens. Better films can make such a minimal concept work - Maria Full of Grace falters here and there.

    This is probably because I feel no sympathy for Maria. She makes a slew of po... read moreor decisions throughout the movie, only managing to dig the hole deeper, and it seems almost unfair that she got out of her rut with no personal retribution whatsoever. Though it wouldn't be true to say that she didn't learn anything, the movie feels a little more forgiving than the subject matter (and back of the DVD box) would lead you to believe.

    Still a good film, but not really great.
  • ajaymuthecooldevils
    June 4, 2006
    ajaymuthecooldevils
    I completely confused with the plot that they made..
  • binky013
    May 14, 2006
    binky013
    A hard story to take. My guess is that in real life, these women who actually do this are less fortunate. Grace: this is what Sandino Moreno's character is living by.
  • rodriguesmatthew
    August 23, 2010
    rodriguesmatthew
    Imagine facing a choice that could release you from the struggles of being poor. Would you take that risk if it meant ruining your life or the lives of family and friends around you? There are many people who are faced with that problem every day. The fact that people are willing... read more to subject themselves to smuggle drugs in their own bodies for money really indicates the state of desperation in poor countries. This film gives us insight into the life of a 17 year-old girl, about the choices she's faced with. I think watching this film might give you a sympathetic understanding of the impoverished and a greater appreciation, it did for me. Catalino Sandino Moreno gives an outstanding performance. Maria Full of Grace is a serious but engaging film that shows the endless world struggle of the poor who want and try to get out of their desperate and imprisoning lives.

    Story: A
    Acting: A
    Direction: A
    Visuals: A
    Overall: A

    **** out of 4 stars
  • michaelneumann
    February 22, 2005
    michaelneumann
    The world was raising. Thunderous canyons shot from below to meet my footsteps. Forests rose and died behind my back. Birds evolved and turned to dust before me. The sky was fire and shadow, and it covered the sun like a closing fist. My hair was a wild brown spirit dancing in th... read moree tempest. My consciousness tore apart into a thousand different pieces, each shot itself like a rocketship to a thousand stars. The moon crashed into the earth. Humanity begged to be. Civilization threw its hands up. Existence screamed.

    My body is an auditorium. Memory is music fading, acoustics wearing.

    Starlight is taxed. Clouds rule the universe. The bridges I walk end before they begin. All the islands and planets are sinking. An air just above me is a melancholy fragrance, and yellowness stains reality. The madness of my flesh is annihilated. I am just a tangle of wires choking a soul, stranded in a breath and under the dead mountains. The edge is deep. I let go, and fall back into a flock of glimmering crystal angels. I dream that they are building me beautiful white wings.

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Critic Reviews

Roger Moore
September 3, 2004
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

Marston's compact, personal film doesn't judge his Maria, it merely observes her, explains her and humanizes a dark corner of a dirty business. Full Review

Richard Nilsen
August 26, 2004
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic

The fact that [Moreno's] Maria is so believable, so compelling, rests entirely on what she brings to the part, not what the part brings to her. Her face is the kind that can carry a movie on the stren... Full Review

Joe Baltake
August 6, 2004
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee

Marston and Moreno make us stop and look, and to see Maria Alvarez as not just another face in the crowd but as an individual person, someone nice. Someone worth knowing. Full Review

Tom Long
August 6, 2004
Tom Long, Detroit News

One of those films that finds strength in its directness, that passes up the fireworks and cheap tricks and just goes straight for the starkness of a powerful situation.

David Denby
August 1, 2004
David Denby, New Yorker

One of the emblematic migration stories of our time.

Desson Thomson
July 30, 2004
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

A stunner of a film. Full Review

Ann Hornaday
July 30, 2004
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

A gripping, deeply moving film. Full Review

Susan Walker
July 30, 2004
Susan Walker, Toronto Star

One of the most viscerally felt films of the year. Full Review

Ruthe Stein
July 30, 2004
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle

With its sharp eye for telling details Maria Full of Grace often has the feel of the very best documentaries. Full Review

Lisa Kennedy
July 30, 2004
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

This American-directed, Spanish-language movie metes out the dramatic and authentic with a measured, believable grace. Full Review

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