CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

Traffic

Director

Steven Soderbergh

Year

2000

Rating

Reviewed by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

Review date

Saturday, February 03, 2001

I have said it over and over again: this is, without any doubt, Steven Soderbergh’s year. You’ve heard it too. With Erin Brockovich under his belt, he managed to come up with an even more ambitious but equally satisfying movie. Its name is Traffic.

There are three parallel stories going on here involving the world of drugs. Mexican cop Javier Rodríguez (Benicio del Toro) struggles to be honest while getting involved with General Salazar (Tomás Millan) and his scheme to finish with the Juarez Cartel, while trying to keep some order with his partner Manolo (Jacob Vargas) as well. Meanwhile in San Diego, Robert Wakefied (Michael Douglas) is appointed as the new drugs czar without even knowing that his own daughter Carolina (Erika Christensen) is involved in drugs along with his boyfriend Seth (Topher Grace). Near San Diego, society wife Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has to deal with the fact that his husband (Carlos Ayala) has been arrested on drug trafficking charges while two cops (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman) are investigating the case that also involves a drug dealer (Tomas Millan).

Complicated? You bet. But Steven Soderbergh’s hand behind it all makes it easy to follow. He photographed the movie himself giving each place a distinctive look and color, not to mention that the entire movie is filmed with a hand-held camera that gives it a more real approach. Soderbergh, along with his editor, blend the three stories together so magnificently that it all feels like one continual flow while we never loose interest. It is perfectly done.

Now, as you can see, this movie has epic proportions. It covers almost every single corner of the drugs world and bombards us with information and important references. It is an in-your-face look at the so-called war on drugs. But its greatness has a lot to do with the way the characters are all three-dimensional and unique, but it still reaches everything there is to uncover . Besides, it is not preachy or overly sentimental. In fact, it is more of a cynical and pessimistic look. It provides no easy answers and the only thing we could get from here is that this war is no way near its end.

Having more than 130 speaking parts and considered by myself and many others to be the best acted movie of the year says something about the quality of this performances. The standouts are Michael Douglas (always believable), Benicio del Toro (touching and sincere, like nothing we have seen before coming from him), Catherine Zeta-Jones (surprisingly holds her own and gives a very strong performance), Don Cheadle (reliable and splendid as it’s common of him) and Erika Christensen (impressive and heart-wrenching). The rest of the cast is uniformly good. Their performances are all of the kind that make you go and say “this is the best work I’ve seen them do”. They’re all that good. And impressive cameos from the likes of Albert Finney, Benjamin Bratt and my beloved Salma Hayek are always welcomed.

One of the best movies of the year, it is crude, violent, real, strong, suspenseful, original, honest and much more, all in one. Stephen Gaghan’s script is simply brilliant and the score is also pretty good. I specially loved the very last scene of the movie. Quite arguably the best movie about drugs ever made.

“I feel like a traitor.”



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Other reviews of Traffic (2000): Jacinda

Review

Traffic

Director

Steven Soderbergh

Year

2000

Rating

Reviewed by

a.k.a. Jacinda

Review date

Tuesday, March 20, 2001

Yes. Finally I had the chance to attend a screening of Traffic at this year’s Berlin film festival and I was more than eager to do so. Being a fan of Soderbergh’s works Traffic was the main reason for me to attend the festival but all 4 screenings were sold out by the time I arrived in Berlin. After having done every possible thing to get a ticket I managed to buy one after one hour of waiting at the box-office. I can’t tell how excited I was to get the chance to watch one of the best movies I've seen in ages.

It is almost impossible to explain how brilliantly Traffic combines several different perspectives in one amazing plot. Soderbergh shows the world of drugs from all sides in episodes devoted to his main characters. The movie starts with sequences in Mexico where a police officer (Benicio Del Toro) shows how to survive in a corrupt system bought by drug dealers. In the US there’s judge Wakefield (Michael Douglas) who wants to make a change in the world when he is assigned to fight the war on drugs. He doesn’t know about his own daughter’s (Erike Christensen) drug addiction yet. Moreover two cops (Don Cheadle, Luis Guzmán) arrest a drug dealer (Miguel Ferrer) that is going to testify against one of Mexico’s druglords. Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones), pregnant wife of a rich businessman, finds out about her husband pushing drugs when he gets arrested by the FBI. At some point or the other these people’s fates come together and in the end Traffic is a brave kaleidoscope of the real world.

Soderbergh’s movie involves some visually stunning ideas. The warm yellow colors used in the scenes in Mexico in contrast to the cold blue of the governmental part in the US make a great difference. Soderbergh’s hand-held cameras and the fact that he chose to have Mexicans speak Spanish makes the movie feel authentic. At times it even feels close to a documentary.

Every single cast member of Traffic is brilliant but Benicio Del Toro definitely gives the best performance. I was amazed to see that he won a dozen important awards but I wonder why he was named supporting actor as he has as much screen time as Douglas. Del Toro is terrific as a cop who knows how to please the right people at the right occasions. He seems to know exactly what to do to make the system work but in the end he has to face the fact that he can’t make a difference. Michael Douglas‘ character evolves from a judge driven by idealism to a broken man who tries to save his family but has to face his defeat. Catherine Zeta-Jones‘ character, at first innocent, turns into a ruthless businesswoman. There are also great cameos by Salma Hayek, Benjamin Bratt and Albert Finney.

I could go on talking for hours about the perfect way of creating the characters, the perfect way of portraying them and the perfect way of combining all of them in one plot. Steven Gaghan deserves all recognition there is for the screenplay. But let’s not forget about the statement the movie gives. I have never seen a movie dealing with the drug issue that is as honest as Traffic. Without compromises the movie tells how the system works. It doesn’t give excuses as it is so common in Hollywood.

Traffic is imaginative, engaging, thrilling, brilliant, true to the facts and a movie that can’t be compared to anything else on this subject matter. See it and love it!

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Other reviews of Traffic (2000): Morris