Maria, Llena Eres de Gracia

In the 1920's, Japanese novelist Takeda Rintaro wrote a short story about a young woman which was far more successful than he'd bargained for. Immediately after its publication, hundreds of people contacted him, demanding that he write another story. She seemed so real to them that they needed to know what happened to her "next".

I could kind of symapthize with them all coming out of Maria Full of Grace. Maria's character feels so real that you really do wonder what she's doing now.

The story is pretty basic: Young Colombian girl becomes drug mule. That's more or less it. No (major) twists or turns along the way. I actually spent a good portion of the film bracing myself for some kind of catastrophe to befall poor Maria, but it is suprisingly restrained. It's rare that you'd have a drug film in which the criminals are not 'punished' in one form or another. It doesn't proselytize for or against drugs, or drug running, or drug dealing. It simply tells a story, one that has probably happened, and continues to happen, over and over.

Catalina Sandino Moreno is outstanding. Not since Keisha Castle-Hughes' debut in Whale Rider have I been so impressed with such a young actor. The film lives or dies on the performance of the central character (the camera never leaves her for even a moment), and she carries it off without flaw. I hope she goes on to great things.

Coming out of the cinema, one of my friends commented that it's very easy for our vision to narrow to the scope of just our own lives. Problems seem much larger and more important when we don't see outside of our own little circles- we forget just how lucky we are. To not live in a town where there is only one industry. To not have to put ourselves in dangerous situations to support our whole family. In this way, Maria is almost like a documentary, showing us a little slice of someone else's life- and remind us to take a fresh look at our own.