Movie Reviews: Maria Full of Grace, 1408, Dark Water (Japanese Version)

I've seen a few movies lately that I thought I'd write a quick note about.

Maria Full of Grace: I really enjoyed this movie. It's a Spanish language film, (although the director is American) about a Columbian girl who becomes a drug mule. I thought the movie did a great job of giving you a sense of what life in South America is like and of making the drug trade seem human without being too sympathetic. The characters are very well developed and the story was engaging. Don't do drugs.

Dark Water (Japanese Version): Not the greatest. Scary, but for most of the movie, only in a manipulative way. Great acting. Not enough really happened.

1408: I have to confess that I didn't really watch all of this movie because there were many times when I had to hide my face in my sweater. I was really scared. Its adapted from a short story so in order to stretch it out a little and to add a little meaningfulness, the main character was given a dead child and an estranged wife. I liked this background story and I think its possible that the movie was trying to say something about faith and hope. Since its not completely clear what it was trying to say, I guess it didn't do a great job with that, but I still liked that it tried. Good, but not great stuff.