I saw Maria Full of Grace this afternoon, and...wow, where do I begin?
I think the thing about this movie that surprised me the most was it's simplicity. The story is one that has been used in many different contexts, time periods, and places; a girl, age 17, needs a job to support her family and so turns to the unthinkably dangerous (and well paying). In this case, she becomes a mule and transports pellets full of heroin from Colombia to New York by swallowing them. It was a practice that I had heard of before, but was unfamiliar enough with to joke about it; also to completely dehumanize those involved.
However, this movie somehow managed to humanize the mules- all, incidentally, Colombian girls and young women- without glamorizing it's subject. The scene where Maria swallows the capsules is almost unbearably slow. There are no quick cutaways or exciting camera angles. The room where that pivotal movement takes places is drab and nondescript, and there is no sound effects or music to add a feeling of urgency. You see it for what it is; a seventeen year old girl swallowing fifty drug filled pellets made out of latex glove fingers.
Even the shots of New York City, which are so often used to excite an audience and force powerful emotions, are simplistic. There are no closeups on hardly anything, mostly long, well composed shots of mostly one color, if you know what I mean; the gray of the skyline, perhaps a neon sign here and there amongst other neon signs, but for the most part, the city actually appears quite boring. Busy, yes, huge, yes, but nowhere near as interesting as what is happening to Maria and the other mules.
And therein I think lies the allure of this movie. Parts of it are very slow, and seems like it should be very easy for English speakers like me to get lazy and zone out, rather than reading the subtitles. However, I was captivated the entire time, because amongst all of the simplicity, the long shots, and the bland colors, was this deceptively simple story. You were forced to sit for twenty minutes and watch Maria swallow the pellets, most of this taking place in the same shot. You then had to sit for another twenty minutes and watch the entire airplane ride to New Jersey, which wasn't much more than Maria and the other mules grimacing, sweating, and running to the bathroom. However, there was a feeling of anxiety and discomfort in both of these scenes; it feels almost as if you are not a member of an audience, but actually one of the mules, and that is not what I would consider a good feeling.
Therefore, Maria Full of Grace manages to do what I foolishly believed was impossible for modern filmmakers to comprehend; to create a gripping story based on a relatively simple plot; to use long shots and plain backgrounds and still manage to keep an audience's attention; to go easy on music and sound effects; and to go light on unnecessary dialogue. It also helps that not one person casted for this movie seemed out of place or untalented; Catalina Sandino Moreno is by far one of the best actresses I've ever seen. I also feel like my eyes have really been opened to a problem that I never realized existed, to a practice that I had somehow never thought of as hurtful, and if that is what Joshua Marston set out to do, he more than accomplished his goal.
I think the thing about this movie that surprised me the most was it's simplicity. The story is one that has been used in many different contexts, time periods, and places; a girl, age 17, needs a job to support her family and so turns to the unthinkably dangerous (and well paying). In this case, she becomes a mule and transports pellets full of heroin from Colombia to New York by swallowing them. It was a practice that I had heard of before, but was unfamiliar enough with to joke about it; also to completely dehumanize those involved.
However, this movie somehow managed to humanize the mules- all, incidentally, Colombian girls and young women- without glamorizing it's subject. The scene where Maria swallows the capsules is almost unbearably slow. There are no quick cutaways or exciting camera angles. The room where that pivotal movement takes places is drab and nondescript, and there is no sound effects or music to add a feeling of urgency. You see it for what it is; a seventeen year old girl swallowing fifty drug filled pellets made out of latex glove fingers.
Even the shots of New York City, which are so often used to excite an audience and force powerful emotions, are simplistic. There are no closeups on hardly anything, mostly long, well composed shots of mostly one color, if you know what I mean; the gray of the skyline, perhaps a neon sign here and there amongst other neon signs, but for the most part, the city actually appears quite boring. Busy, yes, huge, yes, but nowhere near as interesting as what is happening to Maria and the other mules.
And therein I think lies the allure of this movie. Parts of it are very slow, and seems like it should be very easy for English speakers like me to get lazy and zone out, rather than reading the subtitles. However, I was captivated the entire time, because amongst all of the simplicity, the long shots, and the bland colors, was this deceptively simple story. You were forced to sit for twenty minutes and watch Maria swallow the pellets, most of this taking place in the same shot. You then had to sit for another twenty minutes and watch the entire airplane ride to New Jersey, which wasn't much more than Maria and the other mules grimacing, sweating, and running to the bathroom. However, there was a feeling of anxiety and discomfort in both of these scenes; it feels almost as if you are not a member of an audience, but actually one of the mules, and that is not what I would consider a good feeling.
Therefore, Maria Full of Grace manages to do what I foolishly believed was impossible for modern filmmakers to comprehend; to create a gripping story based on a relatively simple plot; to use long shots and plain backgrounds and still manage to keep an audience's attention; to go easy on music and sound effects; and to go light on unnecessary dialogue. It also helps that not one person casted for this movie seemed out of place or untalented; Catalina Sandino Moreno is by far one of the best actresses I've ever seen. I also feel like my eyes have really been opened to a problem that I never realized existed, to a practice that I had somehow never thought of as hurtful, and if that is what Joshua Marston set out to do, he more than accomplished his goal.
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