Maria Full of Grace

Maria Full of Grace would fall in the movie genre of drama. It was a very interesting movie without much graphic scenes. Though the context of the movie was about drugs trafficking , it did not judge real traffickers in the movie. This is not a true story but reports some of what happens everyday in real life.

Maria- the title character is a bold, beautiful, strong, determined, and smart seventeen year old. She grew up in a small rural town north of Bogota. She worked in a menial job but had to shoulder the responsibility of her family. She left that job and got entangled with drugs but did it without her family knowing. The movie showed Maria's unpredictable odyssey from Columbia to New York- risks, determination, survival.

Take note of the title -'Maria' means Mary in Spanish; also Maria was pregnant in the movie without any vivid information of a father, just like Mary in the story of the Bible. Take note too of the picture with Maria looking up as if she is receiving communion... like what is done in a Catholic church. Why did the writer make this connections? I wonder. Also in some scenes in the movie I noticed some symbols of 'Jesus' depicted in stores as well as Maria wore a cross on her chain throughout the movie. In the hotel, one of the drug kingpins, while watching television (waiting for mules to release pellets) did the cross action across his upper chest. What's up with all these connection to the 'spirit', considering the acts that were being done? Is that all these people connected in the drug trafficking were seeking protection from the holy spirit or is it that viewers were to see them as innocent despite what they were doing? Is it that we were expected to look deep for the morals of the story?

This guy, Don Fernando, played a 'good Samaritan' in the movie. It appears as if he owns a funeral parlor and is aware of the ' drug mules' situation in New York. He helped out Maria in some sense after she told him the story about Lucy. He managed to 'pull some strings' and found Lucy's body, so she good get to be buried decently. Don Fernando appears to be a popular community figure. Lucy's sister, Carla took Maria to him so she could get a job, however he helped Maria in other ways.

This movie had much sadness, suspense and drama but exposed that there is hope after all the trauma. This is maybe another reason there were so much religious symbolism in the film. I would surely recommend others to see this film.