9/16/2023 0 Comments Traffic movie oscars![]() ![]() The movie is based on a brilliant 1990 British TV series, "Traffik" (written by Simon Moore), which had the same complex, three-story structure, and though the American "Traffic" has the appearance of fact - a docu-thriller like "The Insider" - it's as fictitious as its source. What can you complain about? There's a softness and convenience in the resolution of the Douglas segments, too quick a transition from socialite to criminal for Zeta-Jones. ("Traffic," which was financed independently, is being distributed by the smaller, more adventurous USA Films.) And even though it has its flaws, this film has such large ambitions, so frequently achieved, that it hardly matters. ![]() This is an extraordinary film, provocative as few American studio movies are these days. Even though much of Del Toro's role is in Spanish - Soderbergh wisely has Mexican characters speaking their native language - he dominates the picture: a great hipster actor, prowling the movie like a wary cat padding through a minefield. But he scored in 2000 as one of the soulless kidnappers in "The Way of the Gun," and he's even more striking here as Javier, the Tijuana cop caught in a maze of corruption. Some, like his dippy turns in "Excess Baggage" and the upcoming "Snatch," are best forgotten. After his terrific comic, mumbling breakthrough in 1985's "The Usual Suspects," Del Toro has had a mixed bag of roles. There are so many first-rate performances in "Traffic" it seems almost wrong to single out one of them. as a crazy hit man, Topher Grace as Caroline's smart-aleck druggie school friend, Miguel Ferrer as a reluctant witness, and the unbilled Salma Hayek as a drug lord's doxy. There are dozens of other characters - each making an indelible impression - including Clifton Collier Jr. Catherine Zeta-Jones is Helena Ayala, unknowing society wife of a major drug tycoon (Steven Bauer) who fights back ruthlessly when her husband is busted by gung ho San Diego DEA agents Montel Gordon and Ray Castro (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman).īenicio Del Toro and Jacob Vargas play Javier Rodriguez and Manolo Sanchez (a name lifted from Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil"), two seemingly honest Tijuana cops who are ensnared in the Machiavellian machinations of General Arturo Salazar (Tomas Milian), a high-ranking Mexican army official whose own war on drugs is a cover for deep complicity with one of two feuding narcotics cartels. anti-drug czar Robert Wakefield, a well-meaning Ohio judge whose life spins out of control when he discovers his high-school-aged daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) is a hard-core drug addict. Michael Douglas plays newly appointed U.S. Soderbergh's canvas is vast, his story absorbing, and his cast is deep and excellent. From the drug overlords to high-ranking officials in Washington, from street dealers to cops of both countries, "Traffic" is a portrayal of a faulty system and its tragic consequences. In three separate but interweaving stories that come together at the film's climax, "Traffic" shows drug trafficking at many levels. Instead Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan guide us, with great lucidity and skill, on a multitrack tour of the contemporary cocaine trade between Mexico and the United States. Traffic is an inspiringly good movie on a depressing subject, the losing battles being waged in America's long-running war on drugs.ĭirected by Steven Soderbergh ("Erin Brockovich"), this film has no pat, easy answers. The best American movies are often the ones that take the biggest risks. ![]()
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