FauxNixon

This movie is an interesting example of how great movies can be made outside of traditional independent avenues and rather with the help of a premium cable movie network, in this case HBO.  Maria Full of Grace is a new movie set primarily in rural Columbia revolving around the life of Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno), a teenager whose life is about to break free of its bondage to a family that squanders her hard-earned money, to a boyfriend who has impregnated her and is unworthy of her company, to friends who are more like tagalongs, to a dead-end job at a rose plantation, and blossom in the United States with the promise of easy-money to be earned as a drug mule.

Be warned illiterate viewers, this movie is almost entirely in Spanish, so if you can’t handle subtitles, skip this title.  For those lucky enough to see this movie, however, one will find a heart-touching movie about a young life in rural Columbia set against the backdrop of extreme poverty which forces a young woman into a position as a drug mule, smuggling cocaine into the United States and the life and freedom she so strongly desires.  Despite her actions, her character is sympathetically portrayed by Moreno.  Catalina Sandino Moreno’s portrayal of this character earned her the first ever Academy Awards nomination for Best Actress for a role in which the character speaks entirely in Spanish.

What’s so great about this movie is that while it is independent, aside from the topic, one would never suspect this.  The production values are good, but there is no art-house quality to the picture, nor is there a great deal of camera work; this movie relies on the old-fashioned method of success: good writing, good direction, and skilled direction.  Maria Full of Grace brings the life of a young illegal immigrant to this country to life in a realistic and compassionate way that may force viewers to uncomfortably considering the possibility of grey in an otherwise black-and-white world of the “War on Drugs,” and illegal immigration.