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Maria Full of Grace
Maria, I'll never stop saying Maria

Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno ,Yenny Paola Vega ,Guilied Lopez , Patricia Rae, Orlando Tobon
Director: Joshua Marston
Screenwriter: Joshua Marston

Reviewed by P. Joshua Laskey

In a time when actresses still struggle to create characters out of thinly written Hollywood ideas of women, a Colombian film sweeps into American cinemas and almost makes you forget the long road yet to artistic parity. Maria Full of Grace is not a story about being a woman, but it could not have been told from its specific perspective without women filling all the major roles--and filling them out. With so much of cinema full of cardboard characters and dissatisfying, trite dramatic conflict, Maria Full of Grace tackles difficult circumstances faced by a young, but nonetheless welldrawn character and does not back down from the implications. Writer-Director Joshua Marston obviously has a great deal of affection for Columbia, one of the story's two locations, its people, its plight, and its untenable position in the world. What he does with that affection is translate it beautifully into respect by telling a small story about tremendous things.

In his first feature-length film, Marston takes on the "War on Drugs" but not with a grand scope or a condescending eye. Instead of indicting either the narcoterrorists of the reactionary governments who need them as an Orwellian prop for their ineffectual efforts and bloated budgets, Marston chooses to focus on the humanity of a single, sometimes isolated girl as an instructive tale about the ordinary people swept up in an extraordinarily dangerous world. Maria Álvarez is a typical drug mule because she is so specifically drawn by Marston's loving hand. The story unfolds in clichés that are rendered powerful statements of circumstance because they are not only true in the sense of being accurate portrayals of some parts of life in Columbia but true in the way that stars indeed shine and wind does, of course, sweep across the land. Each circumstance, which on its own might seem a contrivance of fiction, when woven into all the others by Marston's heart and mind, becomes a necessary thread in a tapestry meant to warm the hearts and minds of everyone who comes in contact with the film.

In order to achieve this tapestry of common humanity, however, Marston relies heavily on the seemingly effortless acting of Catalina Sandino Moreno whose breakout role of Maria is, as the title might indicate, full of grace. Moreno's portrayal of young Maria is without artifice or fear, and she endears herself to the audience so effectively that Marston's desire that the character be received and contemplated as a human being instead of as a cog in the "Drug-War" machine is achieved. Because so much of the story tells of the loneliness and isolation of Maria, it is hard to imaging Marston's tapestry being quite so vibrant and warm without Moreno as his shuttle, but three other actresses turn in commanding performances alongside the star. With Patricia Rae, Guilied López, and Yenny Paola Vega orbiting her like three beautiful satellites, Moreno is set among the heavens as a star more bright for their company. Again, this is a story not about women necessarily because it is so universally human a story, but without the contributions of these women, the story might never have gotten off the ground let alone to its lofty, celestial heights.

A four-star rating system leaves me bereft of the ability to award one star to each daring actress and another to their lyrically magnificent director. Instead, these artists will have to share in the meager four stars I would share with them.

Rating:	(4 out of 4 stars)
Maria Full Of Grace is currently playing at the Tower Theatre in Sacramento.

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