Review - Maria Full of Grace

To tell the truth, I had never even heard of this movie till i saw it in Akshay's list of favorite movies on Orkut. And then i was intrigued. Intrigued enough, by this movie I've never heard of, which was on Akshay's favorite list, to google for this movie. I found the screenplay (good enough)and boy, do i thank my lucky stars that i got to read such a brilliant bit of writing. So the review is not that of the movie per se, but that of the screenplay, but hey, the only part that gets omitted is that about the performances.

Maria is a girl from a small town in Colombia, with a dead-end job and seriously juvenile boyfriend named Juan. She then quits her job owing to some disagreement with her boss, and also breaks up with her boyfriend as she finds out that both of them are not really in love with each other. And oh, she's pregnant with Juan's baby too, by the way. To make matters worse, she gets berated at home for losing her job and depriving the family of a regular source of income.

Soon she comes in touch with a guy who offers her a job as a mule(drug smuuglers who use their body as a medium to get it across borders) and with it, lots of money. So together with her best friend Bianca, another woman called Lucy and a third called Constanze, all of them fellow mules, she boards a plane to America. A close shave with the authorities, which results in Constanze being caught and herself almost meeting the same fate, later, she manages to reach her contacts on the other side of the border. To her horror, she realises that Lucy is dead, and then, fearing for her life, she scoots, and lives with Carla, Lucy's elder sister. When Carla realises that Lucy and Maria work as mules, and that Lucy is dead, she kicks Maria out of her house. Maria, who feels she has a moral obligation to give Lucy a decent burial, makes provisions for it, with the money she makes meanwhile by selling off the dope she brings in.

The ending scene where Maria and Bianca are leaving for Columbia, and also the scene where Mrai looks at a sonogram of her baby, are specially poignant.

It's definitely one of the best screenplays i have read. The writing above does no justice at all to it. If anyone wants the screenplay, just leave a comment, with your e-mail ID. i will send it across.