'Maria Full Of Grace' review Issue #20

directed by Joshua Marston

By Rebecca Flint-Marx
Published: January 1st, 2004 | 12:00am

If it is a rarity to find an actor whose face can tell an entire story while maintaining a patina of mystery, then consider Joshua Marston’s discovery of Catalina Sandino Moreno to be on par with that of the Rosetta Stone.

Moreno is fierce, frightened, misguided, and heroic in her portrayal of Maria, a young Columbian who ditches her thankless job at a flower plantation for the deceptively lucrative opportunity to work as a mule, swallowing and smuggling drugs to the U.S. What happens to Maria along her journey is heartbreaking and oddly inspiring, and enthralls largely because of Moreno’s performance. Marston also deserves abundant credit for telling a story rarely heard, and for telling it in a way that exposes the human face of the drug trade without resorting to a pat ending or condescending Issue-Of-the-Week moralizing. As a movie, Maria is a knockout; as the announcement of two new, major talents, it’s a small miracle.