Jun 01, 2001 08:21 PM
2400 Views
I’m still trying to figure out what all the hype was about!
“Traffic” is based on the different crusades on the ‘War on Drugs.’ There are 3 stories in different parts of the US and Mexico. The first story is that of an Ohio politician, played by Michael Douglas, who has been named the head of this said war. He goes from Ohio to Washington, D.C. warning the public on the dangers of drugs in our society, while unknown to him his 16-year-old daughter, Caroline (Erika Christensen) is quickly getting caught up in these dangers. She and her boyfriend (Topher Grace, from TV’s “That 70’s Show”) along with some friends start experimenting with Free-basing cocaine.
The second story is that of a Mexican State police officer, Javier (Benicio Del Toro), and his fight against the Tiajuana cartel. This cartel is responsible for the major drug trafficking from Mexico to the US. (This whole part of the movie is in subtitles. If you look away from the film, you could miss something interesting.) Javier plays both sides of the law in an attempt to get to the bad guys.
The third and final part of this film is based in San Diego, California. It starts with Carlos Ayala being taken away from his fabulous home in front of his 5 year old son and his pregnant wife, Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones). He is being accused of drug trafficking. Helena goes to great lengths to protect her husband from jail time and to get her life back. This story links together with the Mexican story line to a point. The Ayala’s lawyer is played by Dennis Quaid and the DEA officer in charge of the investigation is played by Don Cheadle (“Boogie Nights”).
While some reviews think that the cinematography was brilliant, I did not. The scenes from Mexico were orange in color; Ohio and D.C. were gray and blue and from California were “normal.” This was confusing to the eyes, although it did let you know which scene you were on because they jumped around from scene to scene very quickly.
“Traffic” was written by Simon Moore and Stephen Gaghan and was directed by Steven Soderbergh (who won an Oscar for this film). In my opinion this film was nothing more than a documentary. If it did not contain some of Hollywood’s best actors, that is all it would be. It was long and the stories dragged on. Benicio Del Toro received an Oscar for best supporting actor and I am uncertain as to why. His role in the movie was not very significant. Catherine Zeta-Jones, on the other hand, was fabulous. She deserved some recognition for her role.
I do have to say that the cast was fantastic. With small roles by Selma Hayek, Benjamin Bratt, James Brolin and Albert Finney, the casting could not have been better. In my opinion, if these fine actors were not in this film, we would have been watching it on TLC or the Discovery channel. The only reason I would recommend this film is to see what everyone is talking about. Other than that, I did not think it was the masterpiece it was made out to be.
Enjoy!
© 2001 KAC
