Traffic

Traffic
by Steven Soderbergh

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Movie Reviews of Traffic

Movie Review: Soderbergh's TRAFFIC is a superior film....
Summary: 5 Stars

Michael Douglas is more than fine as America's new drug czar. He later finds out that his own daughter, played by Erika Christensen, has succome to drugs herself. This makes an irony and brings a much larger pressure onto their household.

Beninco Del Toro, in an excellent Oscar winning performance, is Mexican police officer Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez, who along with his friend and police partner Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas), find their clever ways of police work favoured by a General Salazar, who offers them work, money, and protection for helping him with his so called claim to bring down a major drug cartel.

Meanwhile, San Diego housewife Catherine Zeta Jones is shocked to find her husband arrested, without knowing why, until their lawyer (Dennis Quaid) relenquishes the reasons, which will surprise her indefinitly.

Everyone has a lot on their plate. And although we are sympathizing for Douglas' father and Amy Irving's mother as they try not to let their teen daughter slip further into susbstance abuse, there is an interesting take on the possibilities of what wrongs we are all capable of. Del Toro's character wants to do right, yet his police paycheque is such poverty, and the competing drug runners they apprehend for their druglord boss are large and powerful people. Javier and Manolo are good at what they do, so this new opportunity gives them something they didn't have as Tijuana cops: excitement and more money. Now they are hotshots. However, an underlying guilt of it all haunts Javier like a ghost.

Everyone here has more than a job to do. With such a field of excellent actors, from Miguel Ferrer as a cocky drug runner, Topher Grace as the unfixable punk Seth, or Benjmain Bratt in a terrific cameo as the head of the Obregon Brothers drug empire, they all make the film more interesting to watch, yet what I also liked is how nobody crowds the film and their time in front of the camera, considering the large number of actors and actresses there are.

I really have to say that Don Cheadle and Luiz Guzman as the duo of DEA agents who survey Zeta Jones's every move, are my favourite to watch. They aren't these crisp super hero agents you see in other films. They're simply a pair of the agency's best, remaining very relatable as real people, but very driven when their job takes them to the front of the action. And since they're friends, they also make some good funny moments, joking about this, or bickering about that, without turning the movie far away from any of the movie's purpose.

The violence and substance abuse isn't way over the top, but when the drugs and guns do show up, it isn't pretty either. The story is really well written, and doesn't throw you around. It could have, considering the material's volume. I can't think of a better movie that has a lot to say and a lot to show without confusing you.

A sombering low key soundtrack adds to the film's gritty and surreal mood. And the acting is terrific. There hasn't been a better ensemble of actors than in this film, and with the terrific storyline and directing, I hope they leave this movie alone from any sequal ideas or such. It said what needs to be said, and we'll know how things will go on after the film ends.

Summary of Traffic

Bold in scope, Traffic showcases Steven Soderbergh at the top of his game, directing a peerless ensemble cast in a gritty, multifaceted tale that will captivate you from beginning to end. Utilizing the no-frills techniques of the Dogme 95 school, Soderbergh enhances his hand-held filming with imaginative editing and film-stock manipulation that eerily captures the atmosphere of each location: a washed-out, grainy Mexico; a blue and chilly Ohio; and a sleek, sun-dappled San Diego. But Traffic is more than a film-school exercise. Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (adapting the British TV miniseries Traffik to the U.S.) seamlessly weave the threads of each separate plotline into one solid tale, with the actions of one plot having quiet repercussions on the other two. And if you needed more proof that Soderbergh takes unparalleled care with his actors, practically all the members of this cast turn in their best work ever, the standout being an Oscar-worthy Del Toro as the conflicted moral conscience of the film. While no story is fully resolved in the film, you'll be haunted by these characters days after you've seen the film. By far one of the best movies of 2000. --Mark Englehart