Maria Full of Grace (2004)
Movie: 'Maria Full of Grace'
Genre: Spanish Puller of the Heartstrings
Rating: 7/10
The actress who plays Maria could get by on looks alone, but hey, maybe she can actually act to boot. Her body language and emotion seemed about right, but this flick is Spanish with English subtitles, so you get to prescribe her whatever level of performance you want, usually best ever, if you're like me. That's why I love Japanese and Spanish Cinema, 'cause those mofo's could be virtual Paul Newman's and Audrey Hepburn's for all I know. And that's what makes seminal foriegn movies frikkin' amesome.
Maybe 'Crouching Tiger...' and 'Hero' had subpar acting approaching that of 'Glitter' (2001), or 'House of Wax' (2005). But a lot of 'em sure are are purdy. My poor mother misses out on most of these, because she hates the subtitles. Can you imagine? No: 'Amelie'(2001), 'Leon' (1994), 'City of God' (2002), 'Oldboy' (2003) all the Hayao Miyazaki and Akira Kurosawa masterworks... Unless you rent the fetid english dubbed versions *retch*. And I don't even think that's arguable for blind people.
Back to the movie. It's no big spoiler that this film is about drug mules. You kinda get that from the cover, unless you think some priest ran out of wafers and substituted hard boiled eggs.
You follow Maria's journey from underpaid columbian flower shop/factory worker. Stripping roses of their thorns. Maybe this is a little foreshadowing 'eh? Something about Maria's personality, or impending transformation? I honestly don't know, It's a bit of a stretch if it's meant to be anything of meaning. Anyway, the best thing this movie had going for it, was the chronicling of the actual process of smugling heroin, using your stomach. It had a 'Traffic' (2000) vibe to it. Like a semi-fictional documentary.
That's about all it had going for it, other than the leads good looks, the rest of the story felt like it was there as padding to wrap around the raw details of being a heroin mule. Some people would probably argue with me on that one. But I think, as a drama, it just didn't pan out. There was no real morality lesson, and you left with a sense of hope. It felt as though a producer had a few lines and plot points changed in order to get funding and a green light to make this one.
One last thing, there's a big advertisement you can make out behind Maria as she's exiting the airport, you've got a second before it blurs out of focus...
'It's what's inside that counts.'
Clever.
Genre: Spanish Puller of the Heartstrings
Rating: 7/10
The actress who plays Maria could get by on looks alone, but hey, maybe she can actually act to boot. Her body language and emotion seemed about right, but this flick is Spanish with English subtitles, so you get to prescribe her whatever level of performance you want, usually best ever, if you're like me. That's why I love Japanese and Spanish Cinema, 'cause those mofo's could be virtual Paul Newman's and Audrey Hepburn's for all I know. And that's what makes seminal foriegn movies frikkin' amesome.
Maybe 'Crouching Tiger...' and 'Hero' had subpar acting approaching that of 'Glitter' (2001), or 'House of Wax' (2005). But a lot of 'em sure are are purdy. My poor mother misses out on most of these, because she hates the subtitles. Can you imagine? No: 'Amelie'(2001), 'Leon' (1994), 'City of God' (2002), 'Oldboy' (2003) all the Hayao Miyazaki and Akira Kurosawa masterworks... Unless you rent the fetid english dubbed versions *retch*. And I don't even think that's arguable for blind people.
Back to the movie. It's no big spoiler that this film is about drug mules. You kinda get that from the cover, unless you think some priest ran out of wafers and substituted hard boiled eggs.
You follow Maria's journey from underpaid columbian flower shop/factory worker. Stripping roses of their thorns. Maybe this is a little foreshadowing 'eh? Something about Maria's personality, or impending transformation? I honestly don't know, It's a bit of a stretch if it's meant to be anything of meaning. Anyway, the best thing this movie had going for it, was the chronicling of the actual process of smugling heroin, using your stomach. It had a 'Traffic' (2000) vibe to it. Like a semi-fictional documentary.
That's about all it had going for it, other than the leads good looks, the rest of the story felt like it was there as padding to wrap around the raw details of being a heroin mule. Some people would probably argue with me on that one. But I think, as a drama, it just didn't pan out. There was no real morality lesson, and you left with a sense of hope. It felt as though a producer had a few lines and plot points changed in order to get funding and a green light to make this one.
One last thing, there's a big advertisement you can make out behind Maria as she's exiting the airport, you've got a second before it blurs out of focus...
'It's what's inside that counts.'
Clever.
posted by Kong at
10:19 AM
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