| Product: |
Traffic (DVD) |
| Date: |
08/11/01 (48 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Amazing direction, Benicio Del Toro
Disadvantages: Long
Ok ok, so maybe they don't mean THAT sort of traffic but I couldn't think of any title with a witty drugs reference in I'm afraid! Nevertheless, here is my op on the movie Traffic, directed by the ever impressive Oscar favourite Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Out of Sight).
Lack of talent is obviously something that didn't apply to this film - the cast, on paper anyway, is truly mesmerising: Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones (who don't actually appear on screen together), Benicio Del Toro (who deserved every ounce of that Oscar), Don Cheadle and Luiz Guzman (both great in Boogie Nights and Out of Sight) and Dennis Quaid (Sorry but I loved Inner Space!). All in all in notched up 4 Oscars and 5 Golden Globes and countless other nominations - mainly for best film/director/screenplay/supporting actor etc.
Without giving too much of the film away, it opens in Mexico where two cops, Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) and Manolo Sanchez, are involved in a drugs bust, which is taken over by the Mexican army. These cops end up working with the army to help bring down one of the major drug cartels in Mexico, but its not all that simple...
Meanwhile in Washington, a new drugs Tsar Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) is hired to wage war on the drugs trade. However, this becomes an increasingly difficult problem to solve, especially when he finds that the drug trade has reached his very own home....
Over in California, a drug criminal who has links with major figures in the drug trade is arrested. He can either go to jail for a very very long time, or he can reveal the names of his bosses to the DEA and testify against them in return for immunity and protection. Thus, Helena Ayala’s (Catherine Zeta-Jones) husband, who she thought was a perfectly law-abiding businessman, is arrested, and throws her life into chaos...
The film is directed superbly by Soderburgh and like 'Erin Brockovich&#
39; before it has a slow, restraint charm that at times boils over into flashes of action. The three story lines interweave and overlap and explore different levels of the drug trade from supply and demand, to the preventative measures taken up by police and governments. All of which portray an objective stance that can't help but show the futility of trying to tackle this problem, as well as highlight that the problems can even reach the likes of politicians and apparently respectable business people.
The film is amazing to watch from a cinematic point of view, with different lens employed for the different settings (fiery oranges and browns for Mexico, drained blue saturation for the political Washington scenes). There has been a lot of effort put into editing and composition - scenes are superbly overlapped by traces of dialogue or imagery.
For all the success that it has achieved by the critics, it wasn't a huge box-office success. I can't help feel that the only reason the Academy lapped it up so much was because of its intelligent and neutral approach to the drugs trade. But on closer inspection, for all its good intentions, there seems to be something lacking at the end of it all that I can't quite put my finger on... Still highly recommended.
140mins
Summary:
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