{"id":8232,"date":"2006-05-14T21:02:48","date_gmt":"2006-05-15T01:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=8232"},"modified":"2006-05-14T21:02:48","modified_gmt":"2006-05-15T01:02:48","slug":"maria-full-of-grace-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2006\/05\/14\/maria-full-of-grace-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Full of Grace (2003)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"maria-full-of-grace\"<\/a>You may not think to look at it, but \u201cMaria Full of Grace\u201d is quite possibly one of the tenset films made in years. Mostly centered on suspense and agonizing tension, \u201cMaria\u201d is a film about the drug trafficking world, the world where desperate people are duped in to becoming mules for Colombian drug lords. Catalina Sandino Moreno gives an excellent performance as the spoiled and head strong Maria who basically lives the mundane life of a teenager in Colombia. Marston\u2019s film about the experience of not only people seeking a better life in what they perceive as a Utopia, but also of drug mules.<\/p>\n

Marston\u2019s film unflinchingly explores the rituals of drug trafficking, and Moreno completely commits to such a practice and gives an excellent performance. \u201cMaria\u201d has two basic structures of its story that Marston explores. In one portion, the film scrutinizes life in Colombia, from the minimum wage demanding jobs, to the utter poverty-stricken families that reside there, and the other portion is reliant on Maria\u2019s struggles to get in to America without being discovered as a drug mule. Marston manages to balance both the drama, hopelessness, and tension during \u201cMaria\u201d, and keeps the audience at full attention. We root for Maria even though she\u2019s an utterly selfish character who seems to want what\u2019s best for her and her only.<\/p>\n

Moreno\u2019s performance is so low-key, but so gripping. Moreno is able to turn this unlikable woman in to a completely tragic soul who has misconceptions of salvation, and then has to atone for her errors. Whether or not she\u2019ll be able to ever live with these sins, in a world where she seemingly has no future really does come in to question. Some of the most harrowing scenes involve her swallowing of the drugs and her struggles to keep them hidden beyond airport security. Along the way there are many unbelievable plot twists, and her cruel awakening upon her emergence in to America. \u201cMaria Full of Grace\u201d is a bittersweet, and gripping display of a girl without a future, and Moreno\u2019s portrayal of the title character with no hope really makes this unforgettable. Moreno gives a very memorable debut performance in Marston’s intense, edgy, and murky thriller focusing on the world drug trafficking, and our sometimes futile attempts for a better life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may not think to look at it, but \u201cMaria Full of Grace\u201d is quite possibly one of the tenset films made in years. Mostly centered on suspense and agonizing tension, \u201cMaria\u201d is a film about the drug trafficking world, the world where desperate people are duped in to becoming mules for Colombian drug lords. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[240,302,367,617,1013,1087],"class_list":["post-8232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-crime","tag-drama","tag-foreign","tag-m","tag-suspense","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}