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Traffic (2000) Cert 18. Director - Steven Soderbergh. Writer - Stephen Gaghan. Starring - Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones & Dennis Quaid. |
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Premise - Traffic tells the story of an honest cop in Tijuana, a Drugs czar who finds out his daughter is an addict and a pregnant socialite who's husband is arrested on drug trafficking charges. Stephen Soderbergh describes Traffic as his Dogme movie and it's not hard to see why. Handheld camera's and natural light are by and large the order of the day. This makes Traffic a hard film to watch, but it is worth the effort. All three stories are treated separately, only briefly overlapping each other. Also, each story is given it's own post-production development process to give them different feels. Del Toro’s Tijuana story has a golden; grainy washed out look to go with the oppressiveness of the environment. An environment where everyone is in someone's pocket and being an honest man is about the most dangerous choice you could make. Douglas's story has a cold steely blueness to suit his distance from his daughter and his apparent inability to do anything about her situation. Zeta-Jones's story is the most colourful to suit the life of luxury she has thanks to her husbands underhand business. The photography of Traffic is very impressive and was done by Soderbergh himself under the name 'Peter Andrews' because the Directors Guild of America would not allow the credit 'Directed and Photographed by'. The ensemble cast is universally good. Douglas performance is unshowy and underplayed, perfectly suiting the pain his character is going through. Zeta-Jones shows a side to her acting abilities previously hidden as she changes from meek mother to a woman who will do anything to protect both her family and livelihood. Cheadle is excellent, I must make an effort to see more of his work as I have only seen him in this and 'Boogie Nights'. Stand out however is Benicio Del Toro. Speaking almost entirely in Spanish throughout the film, even though he does not speak the language fluently, he well deserved his Oscar. Gaghan script is sharp and well adapted from the original UK mini series 'Traffik'. Traffic opens the eyes to the current drug problem not only in the US, but all over the western world. When Columbia was shut down new cartels just popped up in Mexico, showing how the drug war is an almost futile endeavour. Traffic builds upon the futileness by not giving us a tidy ending. Like in real life not everyone lives happily ever after and the drug problem goes on. In another bout of realism, real Senators were used in a scene where Michael Douglas's character is being courted by Senators at a cocktail party. This scene was almost entirely improvised and gives us an idea of how the current US government has many differing views on how to combat the drug problem, but no real idea how to move forward. As I said Traffic is a hard slog, It's long and the 'Dogme' style is difficult to watch at times. However stick with it and you will see an engaging and eye opening look at the war on drugs. |
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8/10 for Traffic. Poster quote - You would have to be stoned to miss it. |