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Actors: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, John Alex Toro
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Maria Full of Grace |
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This movie was written and directed by Joshua Marston in 2004.
Maria has just left her job in a factory and, though pregnant, goes to Bogota, the capital of Colombia, with the hope to find a better work. Soon, a man proposes to her to become a drug mule. She accepts because she needs the money to help her sister, her mother and her grandmother who stayed without funds in her birthplace.
Firstly, she must learn to swallow grapes without chewing them in order to be ready to swallow the thirty sachets of cocaine that she must transport. In the aircraft, there are also her best friend Juana and Lucy, a young woman working as a drug mule for the third time. In New York, Maria is questioned by the customs officers but is released because a pregnant woman cannot be x-rayed.
In the hotel where these women must remain with the drug dealers, Lucy dies of an overdose when one of the sachets tears away in her stomach. Maria and Juana flee from the hotel with the drug and hide in the apartment of Lucy's sister. But Maria quickly understands that if she doesn't return the cocaine, her family in Colombia is in great danger. She also visits a doctor to make sure that her future child is in good health. She returns then the cocaine, receives her salary and decides to go back to Colombia.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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17-year-old Maria Alvarez doesn't see much to look forward to. She lives in Colombia in a small house with her mother, grandmother, sister, and nephew; she's dating an indolent loser who gets her pregnant; and she just quit her job de-thorning flowers. But when she runs into an acquaintance
who has connections to the drug trade, Maria finds a chance to make some money for her family and for herself. She has to swallow 62 pellets full of drugs and carry them in her stomach into the United States.
If even one pellet breaks, she dies. But, along with two other girls from her hometown, Maria takes her chances and embarks on a journey to a foreign land.
101 min. Spanish with subtitles.
--Greg Sato, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Maria Full of Grace |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about
books by breaking them down into many different literary
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- present (2000-2010)
Crime & Scandal
Yes
Story of
- life in drug culture
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- blue collar
Age:
- a teen
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Hair type
- (woman) long straight
Body type
- (woman) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Hispanic/Latinic
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Body type
- (woman) fat
How much in movie?
- 40%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Hispanic/Latinic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- gang
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Hispanic/Latinic
Setting
The Americas (not US):
Yes
The Americas:
- South
City?
Yes
City:
- New York
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Movie makes you feel...
- depressed/sad
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
Non-American film?
Yes
What language?
- Spanish
Subtitles?
- Yes
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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