[ThisWeek] Maria Full of Grace at the Kenworthy

[thisweek at kenworthy.org]

This week at the Kenworthy-

Maria Full of Grace (R)
Friday, December 3
7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday, December 4 & 5
4:30 & 7:00 PM
Tickets: $5 adults
KFS passes accepted for Sunday movies
(See Review below)

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Next week at the Kenworthy-

Prichard Art Gallery presents
a FREE lecture with
Pok Chi Lau
Thursday, December 9
7:30 PM

It¹s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Friday, December 10
7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday, December 11 & 12
4:15 & 7:00 PM
$5/adults $2/child 12 or younger

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Also in December at the Kenworthy-

I Heart Huckabees (R)
Dec 17 at 7:00 PM
Dec 18 ­ 19 at 4:30 & 7:00 PM

Regular Movie prices:  $5 adults, $2 children 12 and younger.
KFS passes accepted for Sunday movies

508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
For more information, call 208-882-4127.
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This week¹s review-

MARIA FULL OF GRACE

Written and Directed by Joshua Marston
Rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for
obscenity, violence, and scenes of drug use
Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes
In Spanish, with English subtitles

As reviewed by Stephen Holden writing for the New York Times

It's painfully understandable that the 17-year-old title character of would
risk her freedom and even her life to be a drug mule. This gripping
Colombian film, written and directed by Joshua Marston, follows the
desperate plunge of Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno) from a dead-end
job as an assembly-line worker in a Colombian flower factory into the
drug-smuggling underworld.

This treacherous territory, where young women, seduced by suave,
sweet-talking recruiters, can earn large sums by smuggling heroin into the
United States, is Maria's last resort when she finds herself unemployed and
pregnant. Her ruthless new bosses make her former taskmasters look like
angels.

Before the story zeroes in on the harrowing details of drug running and its
dangers, it depicts Maria's hopelessly circumscribed life in the rural
village where she lives with her mother, grandmother and sister. She is
expected to turn over to the family the minuscule salary she earns
dethorning roses in a sweatshop atmosphere.

Hounded by her boss to be more productive, she impulsively quits. Even when
her family panics, she refuses to grovel to get her job back. She also
becomes pregnant by her deadbeat boyfriend, Juan (Wilson Guerrero), who
reluctantly offers to marry her. Because she doesn't love him, she turns
down the proposal.

The movie portrays Maria's story as a variation of the predicament that
draws thousands of young Colombian women into the drug trade. Courted by
Franklin (Jhon Alex Toro), a charming, motorcycle-riding recruiter she meets
in a club, she is introduced to his ominously soothing boss, Javier (Jaime
Osorio Gómez), who lays out the rules and invites her to try out for the
role of illicit courier.

If Maria's story is a template for countless others like it, what keeps your
heart in your throat during the movie is Maria herself. In a performance
that feels lived in rather than acted, Ms. Moreno's Maria is an attractive,
smart, spirited young woman who faces the challenge of fending for herself
with a fierce determination and an ingenuity that compromises but never
undermines her essential decency and morality.

"Maria Full of Grace" sustains a documentary authenticity that is as
astonishing as it is offhand. Even when you're on the edge of your seat, it
never sacrifices a calm, clear-sighted humanity for the sake of melodrama or
cheap moralizing. Even the airport interrogators aren't monsters, just
everyday officials efficiently carrying out their duties.

Maria's desperate decision may be reprehensible on one level. But on
another, deeper level, it is an act of courageous self-assertion. You
applaud every step of her scary lunge toward personal liberation.


As reviewed by Steve Persall writing for the St. Petersburg (FL) Times

The late film critic Gene Siskel often complained that too few movies take
time to explore the central characters' jobs. He believed that understanding
the occupation a person chooses, and how well or poorly he does it, is vital
to understanding that person. On that standard, Siskel would have greatly
admired Joshua Marston's film, Maria, Full of Grace.

Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is 17, a citizen of Colombia, supporting her
family by bundling roses for export. Her work would be considered a sweat
shop tragedy except that it's so common in her society. Each day she has
quotas that won't be met if she rests at all. A heartless boss looks over
her shoulder, urging her beyond personal problems that might distract her.
The pay is meager compared to the pain.

At the center of this tableau is Moreno, a newcomer discovered through
auditions. Despite her inexperience, this is one of the better performances
of 2004, with its steadily measured arc of character. Maria is initially
naive, then steeled by determination to live her own life, then fearful of
what may happen if she does. But she's always driven by tragic necessity, a
potent hero who we're never certain will come out ahead.

Marston's chief strength, however, is his attention to details that American
audiences - and filmmakers, for that matter - rarely care about. He takes
time - too much on occasion - to describe the smuggling technique visually.
The third act is a bit overloaded with new characters, crises and
resolutions, but we're so hooked on Maria's problems that we don't mind
much.


As reviewed by Mark Holcomb writing for The Village Voice

Like a super-concentrated plot thread from Traffic, only without parallel
story lines for pressure-relieving diversion, Joshua Marston's Maria Full of
Grace sheds modest but intense light on the shadowy underbelly of
globalization in the narcotics trade. Yet despite a reliance on the kind of
"ripped from today's headlines" Marston brings a potentially sensational
subject‹Latin American "mules" who sneak opiates into the U.S. in their
digestive tracts‹down to street level without resorting to gaga earnestness
or cynical attempts at oversimplifying the inherent complexities. It's a
remarkably assured and humane feature debut.

The film's success owes much to the New York­based Marston's deft weaving of
sociology, anthropology, and journalism; his curiosity and intelligence are
obvious in every frame of the film, yet they're tempered by a focus and
suspicion of sentimentality that are unusual for a tyro. This also stops him
short of being just another neorealist wannabe, and keeps Maria from
devolving into an El Norte­style white-liberal-guilt tongue-clucker.

But the film really belongs to Moreno, whose untutored immediacy, impeccable
restraint, and watchful reticence (she truly smiles only once, and it's like
seeing a rare flower bloom) underscore Maria's inner turmoil without making
the character into a mawkishly soulful or smirkily postmodern madonna. It's
to Marston's credit that he's artist enough to get out of Moreno's way and
let her carry his movie.


Film reviews researched and edited by Peter A. Haggart
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

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