Seventeen year old Colombian Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno) walks out of a dead end job pulling thorns from roses rather than let herself be badgered by her boss but her miniscule pay helped support a household of women - her mother, grandmother, and sister. Penniless, pregnant and desperate she swallows her pride and succumbs to the wiles of a suave recruiter (John Alex Toro) for a local drug lord. Maria becomes a drug mule.

“Maria Full of Grace” details the step by step training process followed by many of the many women who came before Maria. The casualness of her new boss (Jaime Osorio Gomez) laying out the ground rules makes him seem all the more insidious. Maria is responsible for her cargo. If anything goes wrong, she or any member of her family will pay will pay dearly. Maria engages in her practice sessions without hesitation, swallowing one huge grape at a time, careful not to break the skin., working her way up to the number of grapes that will fill and expand the small cavity of her stomach. The day comes. She swallows an equal amount of non porous vacuum sealed bags of drugs - presumably coke - each equal to the size of the grapes. If one bag breaks within her body, she will die, as others have and others will. But not Maria. Her steely resolve belies her strength of character. She sees the task before her as one of survival, not morality. She will follow the program - take the medicine that slows the digestive tract - lie to the immigration officials at the end of the first leg of her journey - obey the handlers whose job is to retrieve the goods in the states - and return home.

It is not to be.

A grisly fate awaits Lucy (Guilied Lopez), an older and more experienced courier. She has a sister, Carla (Patricia Rae) , who lives in New York. With Carla’s address in hand, Maria manages to break away with her whiny immature friend (Yenny Paola Vega) from her drug wranglers and wend her way into the Colombian neighborhood in Queens New York at Carla’s doorstep and into her heart. But it can’t last. Maria knows it but can’t find the correct words or the right moment to tell her truth about Lucy. It will take the elder and more experienced Don Fernando (Orlando Tobon) - the unofficial ombudsman of the community - to help Maria, not only to care for her unborn child, but to create a situation where the truth will take its own course. He is the immigrants’ eyes in the new world, steering them clear of legal entanglements, offering fatherly advice when needed.

Once Maria is a able to cut loose from the shackles of her past, “Maria Full of Grace” turns into a thoroughly realistic view of the American Dream. The streets of America are not paved with gold but it is a place where, with a helping hand, someone like Maria might be able to overcome hardship and have a chance to live with dignity.

Writer director Joshua Marston grounds his characters in the rythymn of everyday life. Nothing is forced. Yet, the actors give “Maria Full of Grace” a sense of urgency that makes their scenes bristle with excitement. A sense of dread often hangs over the their every move. Violence is often inferred rather than portrayed. Maria’s story is not necessarily about the drug trade, although it is an integral part of her journey. It is more about the indomitable spirit of a young woman, wise beyond her years, trying to remain true to herself - in a state of grace, as the title inplies - while trying to defeat the odds that life has stacked against her. “Maria Full of Grace” is a superb film from a talent worth watching.

Copyright 2004

The mother of all drug lord movies

“Scarface” (1983) - This is either the worst coke head movie ever made or the best depending on who you ask. This epic about a Cuban criminal, played with over the top gusto by Al Pacino, who snorts his way to the top of the heap has survived over twenty years of criticism to become a cult favorite of the gangsta’ and hip hop generation. So much so that it was released in a deluxe DVD edition. Director Brian De Palm used a screenplay by Oliver Stone as his blueprint but the result is all De Palm testing the bounds of good taste and the fine line between solid entertainment and pure trash. The uncut chainsaw scene is as disturbing as it was back in ’83. But the big shootout at the end seems more ludicrous with age. Look for Oscar winner, F. Murray Abraham (“Amadeus”) in a key role.

Another Al Pacino druggie movie

“Panic in Needle Park” (1971) - Young Al is a small time hood who gets hooked on heroin with his girlfriend. Depressing as hell but it’s chance to see Al as he appeared a year before he rocketed to stardom in “The Godfather.”

A movie about the man behind the cocaine explosion of the 80s.

“Blow” ( 2001) - Johnny Depp is exceptional as George Jung, who is credited with single handedly creating the cocaine epidemic of the eighties when he created a a distribution network that stretched from coast to coast.

Some other movies with about the drug life.

“Requiem for a Dream” (2000) - The nightmarish hallucinatory world of drug addiction is brilliantly realized by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky through the eyes of three addicts on a downward spiral of total emotional, physical and psychological degradation and a mother obsessed with diet pills and a TV game show. Aronofsky uses every camera and digital trick in the book to put the audience inside the heads of his characters with a frightening degree of success. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly play the pair of doomed lovers, while Marlon Wayans delivers a performance that transcends his comic roots. Ellen Burstyn is equally brilliant as the mother driven to madness. This movie should be seen by every high school kid in harm’s way, albeit, under adult supervision. It is every bit as powerful as the documentary “Scared Straight” that gives troubled teens a taste of prison life.

“Superfly” (1972) - Dir. Gordon Parks Jr. The song “Freddie’s Dead” by Curtis Mayfield delivers the message against drugs while the movie doesn’t. Ron O’Neal is the Harlem Drug dealer out to make his last big score before going straight. This is one of the most successful films to come out of the Blaxploitation era thanks to credible performances and its kinetic pacing.

“Monkey on My Back” (1957) - Dir. Andre de Toth. Cameron Mitchell gives a heart wrenching performance as real life prize fighter and war hero Barney Ross whose drug addiction started with his treatment for malaria.

“Man With the Golden Arm” (1955) - Dir. Otto Preminger. Mild by comparison today’s films, a strong Oscar nominated performance by Frank Sinatra as an addicted musician trying to kick the habit and a jazz score by Elmer Bernstein are the two memorable elements of this one. This is one of several films Preminger made during the fifties that tried to push the envelope with themes and language that were frowned upon by the censors.

Two recommendations for the message in the image

“High and Low” (1963) (Japanese with Eng. subtitles) - Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune is a wealthy businessman who decides to pay a ransom for his chauffeur’s son who was mistaken for his own. The second half of the movie has an amazingly frightening drug den scene that can still send shivers down the spine. The ‘High’ refers to the privileged life of wealth while the ‘Low’ is the bottom rung of Japanese society where the criminal underworld dwells.

“Jungle Fever” (1991) - Written & directed by Spike Lee. There is a crack house scene that is every bit as powerful and frightening as the drug den in Kuroawa’s “High and Low.” The movie is built around an interracial affair between Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra with Samuel L. Jackson as the crack addicted brother whose fate dominates the last half of the movie. With Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and John Turturro among others.