Watch Maria Full of Grace For Free

Very well executed

Simply A Masterpiece

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Since the Oscars began in 1927, there have been a total of 420 Oscar nominations in the category of Best Leading Actress. Only 12 have been awarded to actresses in works filmed in languages, other than English. Catalina Sandino Moreno, with her Oscar nomination as best actress in María Llena de Gracia (Maria Full of Grace) was the first Colombian, moreover, the first Spanish-speaking actress, no less, to receive a nomination in this category.In 1960, for the first time, two actresses received nominations in this category for roles in movies filmed other languages: Greek and Italian. Sophia Loren won the Oscar for her role in Two Women. It was the first and, so far, the only time an actress has taken home such a sought-after award for an interpretation realized in a language other than English. The list of nominees reads like a "Who's Who" of famous actresses and recognized by their talent, whose native language is not English:Melina Mercouri for Never on Sunday ('60-Greek), Sophia Loren for Marriage to 'Italian ('64), Ida Kaminska for The Shop on Main St. ('65- Czech), Anouk Aimée for Un Homme et Une Femme (So ​​Sophie Loren and Liv Ullman are the only two actresses to be nominated twice).But there is another interesting category: 19 nominations, in total, for actresses making their film debut. Most of them, like Katherine Hepburn, Julie Andrews and Barbra Striesand, went on to reach "Superstardom"! By carefully reviewing the names in the previous paragraph, you can see that all the above mentioned actresses were already well-known, with long trajectories and many previous films, when the Academy did them the honor of nominating them.Perhaps most interesting aspect of the nomination of Catalina Sandino Moreno is that, for the first time in Oscar History, the nomination for Best Actress had been given to a newcomer, for a role in a film produced in another language! (It's also the first time that the Academy named someone who performed a role in Spanish!) I hope that every Colombian felt a special pride in savoring such important news.However, at the time I thought it prudent not to get all that excited about Ms. Sandino's prospects of winning...And, of course, as it turned out...I was right! Speaking in real terms, the Academy, undoubtedly, considers the simple act of getting a nomination for a role done in another language to be such a great honor, in and of itself, that it decided it would be much better to give the Oscar to another nominee...or, at least, the lack of any other Winner in 50 years certainly gives that impression!I dare, now, offer Ms. Sandino a couple of suggestions! (Hopefully this Review will make it into your hands!) Not too many years ago, you lived your life as 99.99% of people: in total anonymity! Then, I imagine, with the release of Maria Llena Eres de Gracia, there was a dramatic change in your life. In Colombia and with all your ex-patriots, you became an extremely well-known celebrity, with job offers beginning to rain down on you!And Everything accelerated frantically on the Tuesday the Oscar nominations were announced! You must have felt as though you were living in a fish bowl! Under a microscope in front of everyone, with the number of job offers growing rapidly! My humble suggestion: That you look for roles that are totally different role, and try to seek out films that have absolutely nothing to do with drugs or crime!My additional advice ... Well, since I do not know your plans regarding the possibility of making films in English or not, nor have I had the opportunity to hear you speak in English, I do not know if you really speak "a perfect English" as you mentioned in an article written about you in TIME On-Line. What is true in Hollywood is that any actor with a foreign accent which is relatively easy to perceive does not really have many options for any important roles. (With the exception of Arnold Scharzennegger, and to a lesser extent, Jackie Chan and Jean-Claude van Damme)As an example I give you Salma Hayek. Excellent actress, with more than enough English to conduct any press conference with relative ease. But, who, since she has not yet managed to shake off a residual accent, does not seem to be offered any really good roles other than those of a Latina woman. Unfair? Of course! But it is a sad reality. In effect: If you want to work in Hollywood, hopefully, your English must actually reach a native level, or very-near native level!In closing, I have left a topic which may be somewhat difficult for many. I was going to start this review with it, but I decided not to put it first so as not to start on a negative note. As a person who truly values ​​and wants to see Colombia treated fairly on screen, obviously, I would have preferred that the central theme of MARIA been focused on something else! Unfortunately, for too many Americans, upon hearing "Colombia", DRUGS is the first thing that pops into their minds!Certainly, how much better better it would have been, if the nomination had been for a film like "La Estrategia del Caracol"! Well, at least, MARIA seemed intent on showing some of the cruel consequences suffered by some Colombians who get involved in the Drug trade in order to satisfy the seemingly insatiable appetite for illicit drugs demonstrated by people living in the U.S.A.!8*...ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!Any comments, questions or observations, in English or Español, are most welcome!.....

This film was well made with a good storyline, and acting, though it does seem like the reality of it is toned down a bit. For example the border officers who question Maria at the airport seem pretty comforting and not at all intimidating which I had the impression they would be. There are other instances as well where I felt that Maria had it easy, but I don't want to spoil anything.The acting is pretty great with Catalina Moreno doing her part of a young, innocent girl trying to make fast hard cash without really knowing the consequences. There is also good chemistry between her and Guilied Lopez. Lopez is not in many scenes, but makes herself pretty memorable. Patricia Rae who plays Lopez's sister also does a great job. I find it interesting that it is never really shown that Maria regrets her decision to be a mule even when she escapes from the two men. It could be because her character is resilient and stubborn, but I would have thought a breakdown would be included. Perhaps this film was made for more American audiences, and so individualistic personality traits are favoured. This can definitely be seen in Maria as she acts rebellious and is her own person from the beginning of the film. However, because she does not regret her decision of being a mule, it implies that carrying drugs in your body across borders is OK since it is a means to an end. Just a thought. This film does not really critique the drug industry, at least not that I can think of (apart from the chance that you might die a horrific death or be sent to prison). But because the film ended the way it did, which is what makes me think that there isn't a strong critique of being a drug mule/of the drug industry in general. Overall a pretty engaging film that shows the intimate system of drug mules. It is interesting to note that two women in this film are pregnant, and pregnant women seem very common in crime films. I wonder why that is. Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com

I just saw the movie "Maria Full of Grace" on my film appreciation class. I would like to make a critic about this movie. This is a Colombian movie that was released in 2004. This is a crime / drama movie that was directed and written by Joshua Marston. This movie is about a 17 year old Colombian girl named Maria Alvarez. She lives in a lower class town in the suburbs of Bogota, which is the capital of Colombia. Maria and her family don't have much money and they have to maintain themselves. She struggles with her work and gets fired, leaving her family with more limited resources in life. She has trouble finding a new job and that makes her accept a job as a drug mule. She then swallows pellets (62) full with drugs and she goes to New York to complete the deal. In New York she encounters some problems. After giving the pellets to the drug dealers in New York, she noticed that they killed her friend the other mule Lucy Diaz. After knowing this she grabs the drug pellets and goes with her friend Blanca to a safer place leaving the drug dealers without the drugs. The main characters in this movie are Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino), Blanca her friend (Yenny Paola Vega), Lucy Diaz the other mule (Guilied Lopez), Carla Diaz (Patricia Rae), and Javier (Jaime Gomez) who is the guy sending the drugs to New York. I think that Catalina Sandino who played the character of Maria Alvarez in the movie did a very good job. In scenes of stress, like the one in the airport, she knew how to act naturally and not exaggerate as much as other actors in the movie. Maria Alvarez friend Blanca, who the character is played by the actress Yenny Paola Vega, is a character created so that the audience can like in some way hate this character for much of the things she did in the movie. What she does in the movie when she took the pellets of drugs in front of the man in the desk makes the audience want to "kill" her because of what she has done. I think that Patricia Rae, who plays the character of Carla Diaz, didn't do a very good job in the movie. In scenes when she cries it doesn't look real at all, it's like if she was faking the crying. For the rest of the actors and actresses, I think everyone did a great job in the movie. There were some scenes in the movie that I really liked like the one in the airport when they take Maria Alvarez into custody. This scene created a lot of suspense in the movie and I think this is a quality that the audience likes. Another very interesting scene that I liked was when Maria Alvarez has a meeting with Javier; he is the supplier of drugs that are sent to New York. In the meeting Javier seems like a nice man, but you know he is not because of what he does, a drug dealer. I don't like when she goes to her house at the beginning of the movie and she has a little fight with her sister. That scene has a lot of symbols like Maria wearing a red shirt makes her like if she was becoming a rebel, its symbolizing that. I still don't like that scene because the sister thinks that Maria should be the one giving the family money and not her. The sister should help. After seeing this movie the first thing I learned was that sometimes you need to take risks in life so you can survive. Maria Alvarez has to take the risk of becoming a mule to help her family economically and also now that she is pregnant and that she is going to have a baby and she will need to take care of him. These situations in third world countries are very common. Many people have to take risks to survive and they may even fail. Another lesson that this movie thought me is that Latin American movies can be good and even better that some Hollywood movies. I think people will learn from this movie the same thing that I did; to take risks may be the only way to get out of your problems or in this case economic problems. I think that all type of people can enjoy this movie. I would recommend this movie to people that are 13 years old or above. I would recommend this movie to this kind of people because I think that being 13 or above you have the capability of analyzing the movie and at this age you already know about drugs, what they are, and what they're for. If a person under 13 sees this movie I think that they won't understand it and at some point they would want to stop watching it because they could get bored. I would rate this movie as a PG-13 movie. At the end I think this movie can show us a reality of the third world problems that we don't see every day, and I would like people to see this movie so that they can be aware of these problems. I think this movie is good in many ways. RATING: I would like to give this movie a 4 out of 5 because I think it really has a meaning that is important for us to consider. Also in the artistic aspects it has great camera shots and angles and it has a great cast.

Maria Full of DrugsAn incredible film in which Joshua Marston presents to us one of the many realities teenagers live in Colombia, and how one decision can change your life. Watching this movie, of the decision a teenager makes to help herself, as well as her family financially, definitely makes you change your perspective on how you see life compared to the situations of other people around the world. It's a very simple - plot, low budget film, but the movie sends a strong critic to the audience, as well as a message, and it's definitely a must watch for teenagers.In summary, the movie is about Maria, a 17 year old who finds out she is pregnant with her "boyfriends" child, who is a total jerk. She lives with her mother, her sister, and her baby niece, Maria and her mother are the ones who work to provide for the house, her sister just stays at home taking care of her child. She finds herself quitting her old job at a flower factory, and looking for a new one, and on her way to find herself a new job to make "big money" in Bogota, she get's an interesting offer from a friend to work as a mule to New York City. With the money she makes in this trip, she could provide and live comfortably with her family, not to mention they could even afford a new house, plus the baby is on it's way, so she makes the decision for herself, and her baby that she needs the money and takes the job.She ends up confronting a lot of problems along the way, and ends up changing her life, from what started out as just as a trip for a job.The cast of the movie I must say that it was very good. From the flower factory supervisor that says barely twenty lines, to our main character: Catalina Sandino. Catalina Sandino was a great actress in this film, her acting came out as very natural, like if she wasn't acting at all, she plays a very mature 17 year old, the only thing that I did not like about her acting, or her character was that she did not show much emotions, she almost always had a poker face. Another character I didn't like at all, but she is a good actress was Yenny Paola Vega, who played the role of Maria's best friend Blanca. I didn't like her character since the character she played was very frustrating, and immature, her too, had a very natural acting. The only actress in the cast that I noticed that she was acting, was Maria's sister, her acting didn't come off as natural. Besides that, the cast was very good, and everyone did a great job acting.The movie, as I said before has a very simple plot, and it's a low budget movie and I think that that's what I like the most about it, Marston keeps it simple on telling the story, no visual effects or anything like that needed. One of the scenes I liked the most is when Maria is in the doctor and the doctor shows Maria her baby, and tells her that the baby is fine; I guess I liked this part because after all that she was through, the baby survived, it was a beautiful scene, since she discovers that she is soon going to be a mother. One scene I did not like at all in the movie, I thought it was a little disgusting is when Maria swallows the drugs. It is part of the movie, and it was good that they filmed that because it proves a point, it makes the situation more real, but I personally found it not nice to watch.The story has a deeper meaning, besides the plot of Maria transferring drugs, it also has a lot of hope in it, hope to get the money, hope to help her family, hope that her baby will have a better life than she did. And it definitely is a strong film, because thousands of teenagers have been in her shoes, no money, a baby on the way, and needs help financially, so it opens your eyes to a reality you probably didn't even think of, and I liked that because it made me feel grateful.I recommend this film to teenagers all over the world, but of course PG-13, because of that one scene where she swallows the drugs. So I recommend it to teenagers, because I think that its important that people watch this film, and of course also to adults. I would not recommend this film to kids, because they would have a hard time understanding it. Overall, I enjoyed watching the movie, and I thought it was a very good film, even thought it wasn't " Hollywood" it sure is better than many of Hollywood films. I give this movie a 10/10.