Maria Full Of Grace vs Trainspotting

Somebody catch me up: are drugs fun or not? My experience in this department is lacking; I basically just have the movies to teach me. Maria Full of Grace is a movie about drugs; about the people who make and sell them, and the desperate few who take the jobs of transporting them across the border. Uh, no thanks, guys. Seriously, I'm flattered, but I think I'll just keep padding my resume and weighing my other options. I don't think I'll be considering “drug mule” as a potential job anytime soon.

Maria (Cantalina Sandino Moreno) is a young woman living in Columbia in a home she shares with her mother, sister and baby nephew, and it's made clear that Maria's income from the rose factory (she's a de-thorner) is a necessity. Maria has just quit her job, however, much to her family's dismay. We've seen Maria throw up, so we know she's pregnant. In movies, even foreign ones, throwing up means you're pregnant. If her nose had bled, or if she'd coughed, we'd know she was terminally ill. But she puked, so she's pregnant. Her boyfriend's a deadbeat she doesn't love anyway, so he's not an option. Another friend says he can get her work, though, as a mule, smuggling rolls of film to New York. Sure. Rolls of film. No problem.

Soon, Maria is introduced to Lucy, who has done this kind of work before, and advises her to practice swallowing grapes. Maria has a powerful gag reflex, and is unable to get any down. For me, it was a visceral experience: Maria gagged, I gagged. Lucy used her mule job as an opportunity to visit her estranged sister in New York, but never had the courage to look her up. And now, she's going back, along with Maria and her friend Blanca.

Maria Full of Grace was written and directed by Joshua Marston. I'm not saying he's ever been a drug dealer or smuggler. I'm just saying he seems to know the territory. If this isn't how drug-smuggling works, you could have fooled me. It's almost clinical in the details: the way the heroin is packed and prepared, the antiseptic spray in Maria's mouth, her new boss helping stack everything just so…in Maria's stomach. All told, she swallows sixty-two packets of heroin, each of which ends up being a little bigger than a grape, by the way. From that point on, Maria Full of Grace is one of the most tense, nerve-racking movie experiences of the year. What happens if she has to go to the bathroom before the plane lands? The packets have been counted, and the dealers in New York know how many to expect. What happens if she gets stopped by Customs? What if they want to x-ray her? What if they ask about her plans in the states, or for an explanation about the cash she's carrying?

Maria Full of Grace distinguishes itself from other movies about drug culture by portraying it as less than exciting and dangerous. Maria's role as drug mule is basically one of waiting, and the thugs who are there to collect the drugs aren't heavies with big guns, but pretty much just kids like Maria, who need money, and have chosen a remarkably unattractive and unhealthy way to get it. Something happens to Lucy, and Maria finds herself living with Lucy's sister. It's an odd relationship; Lucy's sister is suspicious, but understands what it's like to be a foreigner in a new home, so she welcomes Maria, and promises to help her find work. People are looking for Maria, however, and her secrets become even more of a burden than that bellyful of heroin grapes she'd been carrying only a day before.

Maria Full of Grace is a quiet, sad, intense movie. It's almost scary at times, and is deceptively ordinary. Maria is an independent, smart girl, and knows more about her options than anyone is willing to tell her. Cantalina Sandino Moreno is a real find. She looks like Ali McGraw, or maybe Olivia Hussey, only she's, you know, better. At acting. I'm just saying. She delivers Maria Full of Grace to a greater level of emotion and empathy than it might have had in less capable hands. Even though she's surrounded by doubt, anger and sadness, we believe Maria might be okay, and that has to be in part to Moreno's portrayal.

Just because Maria Full of Grace is a bit of a downer, doesn't mean all drugs and subtitles have to be depressing. Why not turn Maria Full of Grace into a long afternoon heroin filmfest, and follow it up with Trainspotting.

Trainspotting is perhaps the ultimate Nineties movie. It's got indie cred, crime, a rockin' soundtrack, drugs, apathy, and in Ewan McGregor, a star waiting to happen. Trainspotting takes everything good and horrible about drugs and ratchets them up a million notches. Good highs are phenomenal. Bad highs are torturous. Getting clean is dirty. There's a swim in a toilet. There's a baby on the ceiling. There are lots and lots of needles. There's Iggy. There's Ewan. Everything rocks.

Trainspotting is remembered for the flash, of course, but there's a steady emotional current running throughout. McGregor gives one of the best performances of his career (and the 1990s) as Renton, who is trying, with varying degrees of success, to stop using heroin. It's harrowing to watch, because the side-effects aren't just of the shaking-in-the-corner-of-his-bathroom variety, but rather, seen through Renton's eyes. Did I mention that McGregor is brilliant? Likewise for an unrecognizable and unintelligible Robert Carlyle, as Renton's drunk, violent friend Begbie.

Trainspotting was directed by Danny Boyle, who throws everything at the screen, but does so in a meticulous way that reminds me more of Goodfellas than Natural Born Killers. He staggers the fantastical moments throughout the movie, allowing us to appreciate the characters and lives between flights of absurdity and noise. What a great movie.

But not drugs. Drugs are bad. You heard it here first. And so are grapes. Chew those up, kids. And stay out of the toilet. And off my ceiling.

Maria Full of Grace: B+
Trainspotting: A