''Maria Full of Grace'' (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

title: ''María, llena eres de gracia'', lit., " Maria, you are full of grace") is a 2004

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Joshua Marston Joshua Jacob Marston (born August 13, 1968) is an American screenwriter and film director best known for the film ''Maria Full of Grace''. Born in Los Angeles County, California, he graduated from Beverly Hills High School. Marston worked in ...

. The film was produced between Colombia and the United States. The story follows a Colombian girl who becomes a drug mule for a trafficking ring. Lead actress

Catalina Sandino Moreno Catalina Sandino Moreno (born 19 April 1981) is a Colombian actress. She shared the Silver Bear with Charlize Theron and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her leading role in '' Maria Full of Grace'' (2004). She c ...

was named Best Actress at the

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

, and was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Actress The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...

in the

77th Academy Awards The 77th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on February 27, 2005, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During t ...

Plot

Seventeen-year-old

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

n girl Maria Álvarez works in

sweatshop A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, o ...

-like conditions at a flower plantation. Her income helps support her family, including an unemployed sister who is a single mother, but after unjust treatment from her boss, she quits her job de-thorning roses, despite her family's vehement disapproval. Shortly thereafter, Maria discovers she is pregnant by her boyfriend, and he suggests marriage, but she declines because she does not feel she loves him, or that he loves her. On her way to

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

to find a new job, she is offered a position as a

drug mule A mule or courier is someone who personally smuggles contraband across a border (as opposed to sending by mail, etc.) for a smuggling organization. The organizers employ mules to reduce the risk of getting caught themselves. Methods of smuggli ...

. Desperate, she accepts the risky offer, and swallows 62 wrapped pellets of drugs, and flies to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with her friend Blanca, who has also been recruited as a drug mule. Maria is almost caught by U.S. customs who are suspicious after finding Maria's $800 in cash and wanting to make a surprise visit to a sister she "hasn't seen in years", but not knowing anywhere else to go if she isn't home. She tells them that the father of her child paid for her plane ticket. She avoids being

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

ed due to her pregnancy, and is released. The traffickers collect Maria, Blanca, and Lucy, another more experienced mule that Maria had befriended during her recruitment. The mules are held in a motel room until they pass all the drug pellets. Lucy falls ill when a drug pellet apparently ruptures inside her. Unknown to the traffickers, Maria witnesses them carrying Lucy out of the hotel room, and she sees blood stains in the bathtub. She comes to the conclusion that the traffickers cut her open to retrieve the other drug pellets inside her body. Scared, Maria convinces Blanca to escape with her while the traffickers are gone. They leave with the drugs they have passed. Maria has nowhere to sleep, and goes to Lucy's sister's house, but doesn't reveal to the sister that Lucy is dead. Blanca soon joins her there. Eventually the sister unexpectedly hears of their involvement in her sister's death and throws them out. Blanca and Maria make an agreement to return the drugs to the traffickers and receive their money. Maria uses some of her drug money to send Lucy's body home to

for a proper burial. Maria and Blanca are ready to board the plane back to Colombia when Maria decides to stay in the United States. Blanca returns home without Maria.

Cast

as Maria Álvarez * John Álex Toro as Franklin * Johanna Andrea Mora as Diana Álvarez * Virginia Ariza as Juana * Yenny Paola Vega as Blanca * Guilied Lopez as Lucy Díaz *

Patricia Rae Patricia Rae is an American actress. Early life and work Rae, who is of Colombian ancestry, was born in Manhattan and spent her childhood in Queens. As a child, Rae spoke only Spanish at home, but learned to speak English by watching Sesame Str ...

as Carla * Rodrigo Sánchez Borhorquez as the supervisor * Charles Albert Patiño as Felipe * Wilson Guerrero as Juan * Fabricio Suarez, Mateo Suarez as Pacho * Evangelina Morales as Rosita * Juana Guarderas as a pharmacist * Jaime Osorio Gómez as Javier * Victor Macias as Pellet maker *

Selenis Leyva Selenis Leyva is an American actress. She is known for her role as Gloria Mendoza in the Netflix comedy-drama series '' Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–19), and also starred on the Disney+ comedy-drama series ''Diary of a Future President'' (202 ...

as Customs Inspector

Release

''Maria Full of Grace'' was first shown on 18 January at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. On 11 February 2004, it was shown at the

; launch in

occurred only on 2 April of the same year. The film had a limited release on 16 July 2004, before going wide in the United States on 6 August 2004.

Reception

Critical response

The film was critically acclaimed. It garnered a 97% approval rating on the aggregator site

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 146 reviews, and an average rating of 8/10. The website's critical consensus states, "In a striking debut, Moreno carries the movie and puts a human face on the drug trade". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". According to

Desson Thomson Desson Patrick Thomson is a former speechwriter for the Obama administration and former film critic for ''The Washington Post''. He was known as Desson Howe until 2003 when he changed his name after reuniting with his birth father. Biography ...

from ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', "Catalina Sandino Moreno is a Colombian Mona Lisa, a delicate, unforgettable force majeure. Add to her luminous demeanor a story that rips fleshy holes through your heart and you've got yourself a stunner of a film". Writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'',

Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...

gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising Moreno's performance, the screenplay, and Maston's direction, saying: "Remember the name Catalina Sandino Moreno. The heartfelt and harrowing performance she gives here should put her in line for a heap of year-end awards." The film was nominated to the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The winn ...

at the 54th Berlin Film Festival.

Box office

Its total worldwide gross stands at $12,594,630 ($6,529,624 at the American box office, and $6,065,006 from other territories).

Accolades

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Full Of Grace 2004 films 2004 crime drama films 2004 crime thriller films 2004 directorial debut films 2004 independent films 2000s American films 2000s Spanish-language films American crime drama films American crime thriller films American independent films Colombian drama films Colombian independent films Ecuadorian drama films English-language Colombian films English-language Ecuadorian films 2000s English-language films Films about drugs Films about the illegal drug trade Films directed by Joshua Marston Films set in Colombia Films set in New York City Films shot in Colombia Films shot in Ecuador Sundance Film Festival award winners Teenage pregnancy in film