Maria Full of Grace

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The poster for Maria Full of Grace shows the title character as if she were about to receive the host at communion. Instead of the wafer, there is a packet of drugs wrapped for smuggling. It's not a shot from the film; it's a posed shot for the poster. In some ways, I think the title and the poster try to make us think more of this film than is really there.

Not that there isn't anything there. It's the story of a young woman who acts as a mule to bring drugs from Columbia to the United States. She's not an evil person. She isn't really desperate for money. But she is pregnant and the money would offer her a chance to start a new life for herself. In fact, Maria is pretty much a nice person. She has been supporting her family, including her sister and nephew through her job. But the chance of something new pulls her in.

Maria Full of Grace humanizes drug mules - people we'd likely lump together as some sort of degenerate scum. In fact it is very dangerous work. It brings people into contact with some very dangerous criminals. The risk of death if one of the packets breaks is constant. Certainly, there are those who are preying on Maria and the other women being used, on the other hand, Maria and the others do make the choice to do this.

The film takes the time to show us the process -- making the pellets, swallowing them, the flight, getting through customs, the recovery of the pellets. It's neither glamorized nor made especially ugly. But it does involve a certain amount of terror, especially while waiting for the drug pellets to move through the digestive system.

We also see a bit of the cost of this process. One of the characters in the film is a sort of fixer for the Colombian community in New York City. He finds jobs for newcomers to the community. He finds medical care when needed. He deals with shipping bodies of dead drug mules back to Columbia for burial. This character in the film is played by Orlando Tobón, who actually does such things out of his small travel agency in Queens. This kind of realism gives weight to the film as it addresses the issues of victimization and real life consequences of this process.

[A link to an MSNBC interview with Tobón: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5050399/]

It is an interesting look at one of those things we like to keep in the shadows. Every so often, the news shows will tell us it's going on, but we really don't want to know what's involved or who would do such a thing. Maria Full of Grace does give us a chance to better understand those who act as mules. But we really don't discover that much, at least not much important.

A sign at the airport at the end of the film says, “It's what's inside that counts.� Perhaps we're being asked to consider if Maria's action should be overlooked because she is a kind person at heart. But I think there is more to it than that. Remember that she has had about a pound of drugs inside her. She also has a growing child inside her. What's inside her? Both life and death, hope and hopelessness.

What is missing from the film is what the title and poster seem to imply -- a spiritual aspect of Maria's life. She wears a cross around her neck. There is a scene with her praying in church before she commits to be a mule. But for the most part, we really have no idea what is happening within her during this ordeal. Where is her faith in the midst of the trouble she finds herself in? How will all this impact her or change her for good or bad? Is her salvation merely in surviving this experience?

The final scene offers a bit of hope, but even that hope is extremely slim. To say Maria is “full of grace� is a stretch. We see a touch of grace, and know she is in need of much more.

The Door in the Floor

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John Irving is one of my two favorite authors of all time, and the only one still writing. I look forward to each new novel from him. However, when it comes to adaptations of those novels into films, I am always a bit worried. His books are so involved that the briefer format that film provides makes it hard to fit everything in. Cider House Rules (which Irving adapted himself) is the best adaptation from his work. Simon Birch (adapted from A Prayer for Owen Meany) was so disappointing that Irving asked them to change the name of the film from his book's title; it's not a bad film, but it is very inferior to the novel.

The Door in the Floor is the latest adaptation of an Irving novel, based on A Widow for One Year. Actually, it's only based on the first third of the novel. Although this means viewers don't get to see where this story ends up going, the decision to limit the film was a good one. It allows the film to remain faithful to the story Irving wrote and may even encourage some people to read on for the continuation. Writer-director Tod Williams, working with Irving in the process, gives Irving fans another chance to enjoy seeing the story come to life.

It should be pointed out, that even though only a section of the book is used in the film, it is a complete story in itself. The novel begins with this section, (set in 1958 in the book, but made current in the film), then jumps ahead to 1990, then a third section in the mid-90s. Although the film doesn't point to the rest of the story, there is just a little bit of wondering what happens to these people. To satisfy that longing, there is always the book.

The Door in the Floor focuses on a family that has been traumatized by the death of two sons. The parents have moved to a new area and had another child, but they are still dealing with the grief and the loss of faith and hope that the deaths brought. Ted Cole, a writer and illustrator of depressingly eerie children's books, hides his grief behind alcoholism and manipulative, misogynistic affairs. Marion Cole has emotionally shut down - unable to love or find any joy in life. Their four year old daughter Ruth (the focus of the latter sections of A Widow for a Year) defines her life by the stories of her dead brothers who she only knows from the many photographs that fill every wall in the house.

Into this grieving family come Eddie O’Hare, a young preppie whom Ted has hired as his assistant for the summer. Eddie becomes the catalyst for the passions that need to be released, even if they are not released in the healthiest ways. For Ted, Eddie represents another way of manipulating his wife, because in many ways Eddie is very like one of the dead sons. He says Eddie was to be his gift to her. And he is.

For Marion, Eddie becomes someone to attend to in a motherly fashion, but that maternal feeling soon shifts to a sexual caring. After catching Eddie fantasizing about her, Marion slowly become Eddie's introduction to the carnal side of life.

For Ruth, Eddie is a disruption, rather it is when she walks in on her mother and Eddie making love or when Eddie moves one of the precious pictures of Ruth's dead brothers. And yet, in the end, it is only Eddie who really shows any concern for Ruth in the midst of all this uproar and dysfunction.

The performances all capture the spirit of Irving's writing - a full mixture of farce and tragedy. Jeff Bridges especially does a wonderful job, portraying Ted as a man who is both loathsome and lovable.

“The Door in the Floor� refers to one of Ted's children's books, that draws on the stories of Eden and of Pandora's Box. There are all kinds of evil things closed up by the door in the floor, but will we open the door anyway?

In the film, the adult characters are all tempted to open that door in the floor and see what is there. It is really opening a door into themselves and finding strengths and weaknesses, blessings and woes, sorrows and joys. It is a dangerous thing to open that door, but how can we resist?

Many of Irving's novels have a central theme dealing with grace that enables life. In A Widow for One Year that really come through more in the longer story as we see Ruth in her 40s finally ready to love. But A Door in the Floor also ends with a note of grace. Even though there is great sadness in how things work out for the family, we also see the beginnings of the life that goes on in the midst of such tragedy -- life that had not been found in the aftermath of the death of the two sons. The new beginnings that have come into everyone's life at the end of the film hold promise of brighter days for all.

The Clearing

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Wayne Hayes is a well respected and successful businessman. He's called “the man Hertz and Avis are afraid of.� He and his wife Eileen are comfortable -- not just financially, but they have settled into that place in life where the passions may not run quite so hot, but still, the bond between them supports them. Life is good.

One day, the semi-retired Wayne heads off to work and doesn't come home. It's not a spoiler to say that he's been kidnapped. The film goes on in parallel stories of Wayne with his kidnapper, Arnold Mack, climbing up into the mountains while Eileen deals with the FBI and seeks to get Wayne back safely.

Along the way, we discover that things may not have been quite as comfortable as they seemed. Will Wayne and Eileen be able to tap into their love for each other in the crisis?

The Clearing serves primarily as a psychological thriller. It is a character-driven story that spends more time on who these people are than on the plot itself. The plot is still sufficiently well done to give a framework, but the real interest is in the three main characters, who are all portrayed by exceptional actors. As the story progresses, we see deeper and deeper into the characters as they deal with the increasing stress. We go back and forth between sympathizing with Wayne or with Arnold as they hike through the hills and talk about many things, each trying to control the situation. (Although Arnold’s gun does give him a considerable advantage.) We begin to wonder if Eileen really wants him back as she learns about things she hasn't known.

But at another level, The Clearing is a wonderful love story. It's not the kind of love story of boy meets girl, etc. It's a love story about discovering just what love means. Even without the physical passion that is often used in films to speak of love, we see as the film plays out just what the love that Wayne and Eileen share entails. It involves both pain and joy, toughness and tenderness. It may seem to be taken for granted when together, or the most important thing in the world when apart.

In the same way, we may become quite comfortable with the ways God is manifested in our lives. We may rarely spend time thinking specifically about God's love for us and our love for God. But still that love exists and grows. When crisis comes into our lives, we may at first be overwhelmed by a sense of separation -- God may seem to be far away from us. But as we move through those times of strife, that love may be the most essential thing -- sustaining us and bringing us again nearer to God -- because God's love is not so much tested by adversity as it is more fully discovered.

It is the love we see between Wayne and Eileen that really what makes this film worthwhile. To be sure, the acting is first-rate, as you would expect from Redford, Mirren and Dafoe. The thriller aspect is well done, but still not really exceptional. But to be able to watch as Wayne and Eileen’s love becomes more manifest as the crisis wears on provides a much deeper understanding of love than most films give us.

Indeed, we discover as we watch just how precious love can be even in times of separation and crisis -- perhaps especially in times of separation and crisis. It could be that Wayne and Eileen rarely thought about the love they shared on a day-to-day basis. But in the trouble that comes upon them, that love sustains them in ways they would never have suspected.

Control Room

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A few days after viewing Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore’s anti-Bush diatribe (which I liked, by the way, in spite of its many excesses), I watched what may be a far more important film that deals with the Iraq war, Control Room, a documentary about the way the news of the war was shared with American and Arab audiences, with special focus on Al Jazeera’s coverage. Its importance lies not so much in its message as in its ability to show us a different view of the war alongside what we saw on our own news media.

Al Jazeera is an Arab news channel. It has been banned from several Arab countries because it has been critical of the governments. In the days before the Iraq war started, Saddam Hussein threatened to expel Al Jazeera from Iraq if it kept broadcasting US propaganda. At the same time, the American government was accusing it of pro-Iraq bias and called it the “mouthpiece of Osama bin Laden.� Who is to be believed?

That is in some ways a key question this film raises about the news from the early weeks of the war in Iraq - who is to be believed?

Documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim is in an interesting position to raise the question. As an Egyptian American, she considers herself a part of both the American and Arab worlds. She is not so much trying to push her views of the war, rather she wants to show us that there are other ways of looking at what is happening. It becomes clear that the Arab reporters and the Arab world had much different perspectives than Americans. Those perspectives shape the way the news is presented. Who is to be believed?

The film is, for the most part, divided between Al Jazeera’s headquarters and Centcom, the pressroom in Qatar where the military issued its briefings. Reporters from many agencies, including Al Jazeera, all reported the news from this location.

The impression of Al Jazeera I came away with was that they were professional journalists who were trying, just like the other journalists, to find a way of showing and telling the world what was happening in the war. Because Al Jazeera is based in the Arab world, it was important for them to show what was happening to Arabs, just as the American media focused more on what was happening to American soldiers. Who is to be believed?

This leads to some very different ways of viewing the events. The film shows American Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claiming that Al Jazeera stages scenes with women and children in bombed out buildings. The film also shows the scene from downtown Baghdad in which people tear down the statue of Saddam. As the Al Jazeera people watch it, it seems obvious to them that this scene is staged -- and their comments make that possibility believable. Who is to be believed?

Some of the best footage in this film involves a Marine press officer, Lt. Josh Rushing, whose job it is to explain the US position and policy to the Arab press. We see clips from some of the conversations and debates he has with the reporters and producers. He is fair and open-minded. He is very willing to listen to them and their perceptions. At times, he also recognizes that there are things about who he is that clouds the ways he sees things.

Those conversations are wonderful examples of people talking with each other, not at each other. There is a give and take of ideas and views. We learn how Americans view the Middle East is very different from the way Arabs view the area. We learn that when Arabs see news footage from the war, it affects them very differently from the way it affects Americans. The same footage will be understood in different ways. Who is to be believed?

Regardless of one's view of the war, Control Room will provide insight that you haven't had before. The film doesn't push either a pro- or an anti-war view. It is neither pro-American nor pro-Arab. It is a search for truth, just as the news media -- be it CNN, Fox News or Al Jazeera -- all have truth as their goal. To be sure, each outlet has its own biases, and Noujaim no doubt also has hers. Truth can be very elusive. We should seek the truth in every way possible. The different understandings, whether from CNN, the military spokespeople, or Al Jazeera all shed light on that truth.

Who is to be believed? Never an easy question. Control Room understands that if we are to appreciate one another as people and cultures, we must be willing to see the truth from other perspectives.