Cocaine Godmother

Cocaine Godmother
Teaser poster
Written by David McKenna
Molly McAlpine
Directed by Guillermo Navarro
Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones
Raúl Méndez
Juan Pablo Espinosa
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Spanish
Production company(s) Asylum Entertainment
Lighthouse Pictures
Distributor Lifetime
Release
Original release
  • January 20, 2018 (2018-01-20)

Cocaine Godmother is a 2018 American biographical crime drama television film directed by Guillermo Navarro and written by David McKenna. The film stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as Griselda Blanco, who was known as the Cocaine Godmother.[1][2] It premiered on Lifetime channel on January 20, 2018.[3]

Cast

Plot

Griselda Blanco grows up in poverty in Colombia, and commits her first murder after being forced into childhood prostitution. She eventually comes to live to the US with her first husband and three sons. She earns money by creating fake passports for cocaine smugglers, and moves into the smuggling trade herself when she realizes that using beautiful women as mules will lower the chances of them being caught.

Griselda, fed up with her abusive marriage, leaves her husband and takes her children. She meets Carolina, an American woman with whom she begins a romance. Griselda soon gets remarried to a man, but keeps Carolina as a companion for years.

After moving to Miami, Griselda's drug empire quickly grows. She comes up with the idea to put assassins on motorcycles, as they'll be able to move around the city faster than with cars. She does business with Pablo Escobar back in Colombia, and becomes the queen of the cocaine trade. As a result, Miami sees a steep rise in crime.

Griselda and her family are pushed to the edge by the stress of their illegal business. Her three eldest sons have all become dangerous gangsters. Her marriage falls apart and Carolina dies of a drug overdose. Her fourth son, fathered by her most recent boyfriend, is kidnapped and it takes weeks to get him back home. Griselda, herself, develops an addiction to smoking cocaine that makes her increasingly irrational and unreliable.

The DEA have been watching her operation for years. She moves to Los Angeles to lie low, but is eventually found and arrested. Griselda serves limited jail time thanks to the loyalty she commands among her minions. After doing her time, she is deported back to Colombia where she lives a lonely existence. She dies an old woman when a motorcycle assassin shoots her on the street.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from the only two critics that were published, and both panned Zeta-Jones' performance. Writing for IndieWire, Hanh Nguyen criticised the decision to cast Zeta-Jones in the part of a Latino woman, adding that "she's not just unconvincing; she's outlandish".[4] Similarly, Ciara LaVelle of the Miami New Times called the made-for-TV movie "campy" and "sexist" ; and felt that Zeta-Jones "struggles to embody the role of a 17-year-old Colombian immigrant, and though her portrayal solidifies as the story progresses, her accent remains cringeworthy throughout. (At least in her later, allegedly cocaine-addicted years, you can blame it on the drugs.)"[5]

References

  1. ↑ Evans, Greg (18 May 2017). "Lifetime Greenlights 'Cocaine Godmother' Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones". Deadline.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  2. ↑ Brown, Scott (6 June 2017). "Hollywood North: Catherine Zeta-Jones filming 'Cocaine Godmother' in Vancouver". The Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  3. ↑ Pederson, Erik (16 November 2017). "'Cocaine Godmother': Lifetime Lines Up Trailer & Premiere Date For Catherine Zeta-Jones Telefilm; 2 Other Pics Dated". Deadline.com. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  4. ↑ Nguyen, Hanh (20 January 2018). "'Cocaine Godmother' Review: Brownface Casting Is Just One of Many Insults in This Schlocky 'Narcos' Knockoff". IndieWire. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  5. ↑ LaVelle, Ciara (19 January 2018). "Griselda Blanco TV Movie Cocaine Godmother Is Campy and Sexist". Miami New Times. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
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