Films that can be regarded as educational while at the same time entertaining are a rare occurrence. Steven Soderburgh's portrayal of the current state of affairs in the US drug war is one of the few pictures that can claim this, thanks to a screenplay that isn't afraid to tell it like it is and his own flair for spinning a good yarn. He also turns his hand to the photography, which is innovative in trying to give each location it's own individual look but which seems a little unnecessary when, in the case of the washed out blue effect, it seems to be used at random.
Traffic weaves together three connected plots, each reflecting a different front on which drugs are wrecking havoc. Michael Douglas plays the newly appointed drug Csar who is naive about the whole problem, but then finds out how far reaching it is when he has a bit of a Jack Straw and finds out that his daughter is a heroin addict. Soderburgh rewards Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman for their great supporting turns in Out of Sight with more rewarding roles as DEA agents investigating a wealthy drugs trafficker.
As for Catherine Zeta Jones who plays the drugs traffickers society wife, I think research should be done into the hormones produced during pregnancy inducing dangerous bouts of acting into the otherwise average Hollywood denizen. Unfortunately her accent veers painfully and frequently from Middle American to plum English and occasionally even dips into the lilting valleys of her native Wales. However the best act of this plots golden triangle is saved for Benicio Del Toro who brilliantly plays a world-weary cop in the Mexican town of Tijuana, trying his best to battle the cartels in the face of Police corruption and warring drug lords.
Each of the three stories has a very strong plot and is well acted, while bringing up pertinent questions as to the root of the drug problem and the sheer scale of any attempt to solve it. However, the film drags a little in the last half hour and seems to lack the courage of it's convictions by serving up a happy ending of sorts for each storyline which, rather than showing that despite everyone's efforts the war rages on, gives an upbeat finish oddly out of character with the rest of the film. |
