Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by orejones (D) on January 27, 2005 at 10:51:43

In Reply to: "Maria Full of Grace," extraordinarily posted by tinear on January 26, 2005 at 06:19:18:

...it never tried to be a thriller. Nor did it try to show its main character as an outstandingly beautiful woman.

And of course it doesn´t have any rightwing agenda...

And now please let me elaborate: what this film depicts is not just Maria´s portrait, but a situation which is common to thousands of women in similar situations: that´s why the main character is named "Maria", which is the most common name for girls in any Spanish-speaking country. The girl is actually not just herself, but to some measure the other three girls, too: Maria´s best friend; then that Lucy who, by their standards, looks like having a good life; the older woman with a slutty look in the airplane, and Maria herself all sum up to make a single character, kind of a semiarchetypal portrait of those women overburdened by an oppressive misery which in that country may end up with them acting as mules to carry cocaine inside their bodies.

The film gives an accurate portrait of the conditions that usually lead women in empoverished countries to accept that dangerous illegal job, even knowing the high risks involved: misery at home, and the lack of opportunities to raise above it drive them into the hands of drug dealers and trafficants. And even these bastards are not depicted as barbaric evildoers, but as apparently affable guys, while actually ruthless in the way they "insure deliverance of goods"...

The way this girl Maria gets involved, and trapped into that net, is simple, and it goes on in a way that sure is not much different from what actually happens there everyday: there´s no straight violence seen in the screen, but these girls, once trapped, are trapped forever, or until they are caught.

The baby in her plays a double role in this film, which, even not being esecially complex, isn´t as simple as it may look (and as you have stated...), as it is the trigger that makes Maria question her role and her future in the village she lives in, thus giving her a reason to risk her life, and when she is questioned and detained at the airport, this baby inside her body is the only reason why she is not thrown straight into jail. She doesn´t seem to have ever seriously considered the possibility of an abortion, but she doesn´t want to follow the same steps her sister has, and she fights for that baby the only way she finds: it´s about how good people can end up doing wrong things, while not losing their innocence and their soul in the process.

As you rightly say, "She traded rose work for sewing, hardly a big step up considering the dangers she'll face in her future slum digs", and by so doing she assumes a big risk. But the fact is, that at home she had absolutely no hope of getting any better, of not ending like her sister and her own mother... while in the US she still sees some possibility of progress by working hard as Lucy´s sister is doing.

The characters are deeply human: even that man, the fat deal-maker, is depicted as a concerned man, who in his own way helps her to conjure the life-threatening risk those two thugs are. And even those bastards do honor their deal and, once they´ve recovered the drugs, pay them.

No, I am not saying that bad people in this film are good ones. What I am saying is that this film is pregnant with nuances, and that the characters in it are much more complex, and much more human, than what you seem to think they are. And that it is a very good film, narrated with a good filmic pulse, never overacted, never resourcing to snuff or goreish images, with a good photography and accurate characters, even if a bit sketchy at times. In few words: exactly what Hollywood films use not to be...

I think it would be wise to see it once more, this time with new eyes, as your point of view, and your evaluation of it, could change a lot, for better.

Regards

BF