Followup: Maria Full of Grace, and Red Eye

Dave asked:

Out of curiosity, what exactly made Maria Full of Grace such a good movie?... I thought that the point of view from the young girl who wanted to make money was done excellently. However, the movie moved slowly and ended anti-climatically in my humble opinion. Although it was more intense in a realistic manner than the overdone action/comedy/horror/ poo poo that has been released as of late.

Maria told the story of a real, everyday person among everyday people. Even the drug dealers were human; their lives, like everyone else's, made up of events and relationships that were interesting even though they weren't unusual. For each person in the film, there are thousands of similar characters in the real world.

(spoiler warning)

The film ended on a high note, with Maria starting a new life. An everyday life, but one full of hope.

For other reasons to like it, the film gave a good view of the drug trade from the mule's perspective. The people in the film were (all but two) Hispanic. The movie gave a comparison between life in Columbia and the US, and calls for one between the life of immigrants to the US, and our lives as citizens from birth. In particular, Maria herself shows an illegal immigrant's perspective as someone working for a better life for herself and her baby.

(end spoiler)

I was disappointed that the story gave virtually no notice of religion's place in the lives of its characters, since it did chronicle all of the other important everyday circumstances.

Overall, it was memorable, but I admit not especially life-changing. It was more encouraging and much deeper than most Chicken Soup for the Soul stories. Not entertainment as it is generally considered, just a good story.

Good point about being intense in a realistic manner. Quality stories about an ordinary situation can be at least as interesting, and have a sort of intensity at least almost as good as a save-the-world scenario. You get a bit of that in Red Eye, too.

Another review: Red Eye was pretty decent. The story and characters could exist in real life, though not quite as much as in Maria. The ending to Red Eye had a lot of action, yet it fit the plot almost perfectly.

This movie is a "suspense thriller." I suspect that men and women will react quite a bit differently to the situation that provokes the thrills. The main character is a young woman, with whom I could sympathize but not really empathize. Most women will probably feel a much stronger bond with Lisa, at least as much empathy as sympathy. Their reactions may be closer to Lisa's herself: fear and hope that she escape; men, seeing the event as if from the outside, may have more anger in place of fear, and a desire to intervene, along with hope to see Lisa escape. This is, of course, a generalization and a made-up theory – could anyone comment? Comparisons of Red Eye to Hitchcock are also welcome.. I don't know Hitchcock well enough to comment.