Traffic

reviewed by Mark Pimentel, age 16, from US

Best Picture? Probably not... Worth seeing? Definitely.

Traffic opens in a very plain and humble fashion: gone are the eye-candy and computer generated intros, the amazing musical scores, and the panoramic first scenes. Instead, we get opening credits shown in white text on a no-frills black background, and a starting shot through grainy and yellow-tinted video stock in a dusty and unforgiving Mexican desert in the middle of nowhere. To boot, what follows in the initial scene is chaotic, the characters in it are hard to keep track of, and there isn't a clear way to distinguish the good guys from the bad. It may have just been a way to hook the audience in (thatÕs what I initially thought), but itÕs not so; the whole movie follows this trend: it never says too much, never makes the movie an easy experience to watch, and never holds the viewer's hand through anything, but in the end, as much as people may try and deny it, itÕs this very doctrine that makes the film so great. Make no mistake about it: Traffic is not set up to be a clean-cut Hollywood film, and in many ways it even looks more like a documentary with soap-opera style elements. It's a serious flick that doesn't promise to be amusing or delightful, but is powerfully captivating nonetheless.

The focus of the movie is the drug trade, and is followed through three different, but often interweaving, storylines. First is the tale of Javier (Benicio del Toro), a Mexican drug trafficking cop. He and his partner Manolo, whose scenes are always shot in yellow, are caught in the middle of corrupt army officers, drug czars, and American DEA agents in a whirlpool of scandal and deceit. Second comes Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), an Ohio judge newly appointed as the United StatesÕ main anti-drug officer. Unbeknownst to him, the drug trade heÕs policing is not only taking place across the Mexican border but also in his own household as his daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) is going through a harrowing period of drug addiction. Third is the story of San Diego socialite Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones) whose life is starting a downward spiral after her husband, a successful businessman by morning, drug czar by night, is arrested for drug-trafficking. His arrest comes from the efforts of two US DEA Agents, Montel Gorden (Don Cheadle) & Ray Castro (Luis Guzman), to convince arrested trafficker Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer) to snitch on his former boss.

The strength of the movie is its ability to turn these three different plots into one massive and engaging overview of the drug war. Though convergences in terms of air time are relatively small, the effect of certain things, even those that seem insignificant at first, can echo from one storyline to another, creating a very realistic-type of connection between all aspects of the drug trade. The film tries to basically create a microcosm of the war on drugs in two and a half hours of film, and in many ways -- perhaps as much a given person can -- succeeds. After all, the story affects the end-users, the drug czars, and everyone in-between, giving audiences a very good birdÕs-eye-view of just how dangerous and widespread the drug trade really is.

The scenes fit together so snugly because the directorial work of director Steven Soderbergh is excellent throughout the whole of the film. Even as the scenes alternate from English to Spanish, from the yellow tint of Mexico to the bluish tone of Ohio, and from bumpy and hand-held camera-type car-rides to wide and sweeping shots, itÕs all tied in together with a steady depiction focused on telling a solid story based on rock-hard reality. There are no clean-cut heroes in this movie as characters act to humanity and authenticity instead of morality or to what audiences will like the most. People die in the most inopportune moments, as most death occurances are, and unlike most Hollywood productions, there are real mysteries in this flick, as circumstances cause personalities and motives to change and evolve without warning.

Strong performances abound, and though air-time for a given actor is relatively short due to the large array of interweaving plots, every player gets at least one good scene. Michael Douglas is wonderful as the concerned and angst-ridden parent of a crazed drug addict, Benicio del Toro shines as the struggling conscience in a bleak Mexican society, and Catherine Zeta-Jones is praiseworthy for her strong emotional performance (she was pregnant at the time, so the sexual overtones usually in her movies are reduced, creating more focus on her acting skills). Don Cheadle and Luiz Guzman were great as two DEA agents and provided some of the few humorous moments in a very serious film. Erika Christensen, however, really stole the show in an extraordinary performance as a torn drug addict. SheÕs got a bright future.

Traffic is not your usual Hollywood flick -- the theatricality is not there, the feel-good ending is absent, and the plot is more of an overview than a strict flow of events -- but Traffic still manages to be a very good film. ItÕs a humanizing film thatÕs more powerful than the best romantic duo, the most fantastic action scene, or the most revolutionary special effects because it is reveals a side of our society that is more complex, more profound, and more forceful than anything weÕve ever seen before. I hope this film can help us open our eyes.

Rated: R for pervasive drug content, strong language, violence, and some sexuality