TRAFFIC

(December 2000, U.S.)

I think I'm one of the few people in the world who didn't like Steven Soderbergh's ERIN BROCKOVICH or Julia Roberts's performance in it. In fact, I used to spitefully call the movie ERIN "BREATAVICH" because it seemed to me like Roberts was doing most of her acting through her tits (not that I have a problem with big tits, of course). Anyway, I couldn't help but wonder if I'd ever enjoy another Soderbergh film again after that one (despite its enormous popularity). TRAFFIC, released in the same year, was a refreshing return to the kind of storytelling and filmmaking I'd already enjoyed in his two previous films OUT OF SIGHT (1998) and THE LIMEY (1999). This American crime drama which explores the illegal drug trade from its numerous perspectives (including users, enforcers, traffickers and politicians - some of whom never actually meet each other in the film) is based on a 1989 British TV series called TRAFFIK (I've never seen it). The story's breakdown is as follows:

In Mexico, police officer Javier Rodriguez (played by Benicio Del Toro) and his partner are intercepted by a high-ranking Mexican general after they stop a drug transport and arrest its couriers. Javier is recruited to capture a well-known hitman working for the Tijuana drug cartel. Under torture, the hitman reveals the names of key members of the rival Obregón cartel. Turns out the entire Mexican anti-drug campaign is a fraud, as the General is secretly eliminating one cartel because he is in business with another for a profit. As Javier gets deeper into the heart of the drug trade, he eventually lends himself out to side with the American DEA, and feels like a traitor to his country in the process.

In San Diego, an undercover DEA investigation led by agent Montel Gordon (played by Don Cheadle) leads to a high profile arrest of a high stakes dealer posing as a fisherman. As he and his partner go to great efforts to keep their witness alive to testify against his employer, said employer is arrested in front of his pregnant wife (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) and his child. The arrest is intended as a loud message to the Mexican drug organizations. As the wife who is initially terrified and confused at the shocking disruption to her life and life style, she slowly evolves into a woman of strength and conviction, willing to pick up the illegal business where her husband left off in order to survive, even ordering the assassination of the one man who can testify against her husband.

Finally, conservative Ohio judge Robert Wakefield (played by Michael Douglas) is appointed to head the President's Office of National Drug Control Policy. This is expected to involve the traditional political bullshit, until Robert discovers that his own sixteen year-old daughter, an honor student, has become a drug addict. The line between what is political and personal comes into play, and Robert is forced to balance what is expected of him from his superiors and what he knows must be done as a concerned father, even to the point of dragging his daughter's boyfriend out of school to help find her in the big city of Cincinnati, eventually discovering her prostituting herself in a seedy hotel. Even after having rescued his daughter, he comes to realize just how futile his political intentions and plans are in the war on drugs - a war that must sometimes be fought at home against one's own family.

To call TRAFFIC ambitious would be a gross understatement. Even as we're watching three different stories that are ultimately connected somehow, we're forced to recognize issues in the drug world that are often grey, with no real identifiable "good guys" and "bad guys". TRAFFIC doesn't preach to us the immoral horrors of drugs, but rather allows its characters and their outstanding performances to do the talking and allow us as the viewers to think for ourselves. And still, it remains a haunting and gripping thriller meant to keep us on the edge of our seats, awaiting the next explosive resolution. It also reminds us to every once in a while forget crap like OCEAN'S TWELVE and THIRTEEN and remember the sort of independent and artistic filmmaking Steven Soderbergh has been giving us ever since SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE in 1989.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Robert Wakefield: "What's Washington like? Well it's like Calcutta, surrounded by beggars. The only difference is the beggars in Washington wear fifteen hundred dollar suits and they don't say please or thank you."