rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2000
Directed by Steven Soderbergh; produced by Laura Bickford, Marshall Herskovitz, Edward Zwick; screenplay by Stephen Gaghan
Starring Benicio Del Toro, Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzmán, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Miguel Ferrer, Erika Christensen, Topher Grace, James Brolin, Albert Finney, Dennis Quaid, Benjamin Brett, Salma Hayek
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
The best film from 2000 is 'Traffic'. It is one of those films that seem to
have no flaw. In its story the only flaw I was able to discover is that
sometimes coincidence is used to create a dramatic sequence with a certain
suspense. On the other hand, coincidence is also part of our lives.
'Traffic' plays in the world of drugs, or actually in three worlds of drugs.
We have the dealing world where drugs are transported from Mexico to the
United States, we have the using world where young teenagers use drugs
because it is easier to find than alcohol, and we have the protecting world
where high officials do everything in their power to stop the dealing and
using world.
Steven Soderbergh gives us these three worlds and looks at it, not giving a
solution, but showing us that a problem like this is hard to handle. When a
major dealer is arrested, his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) takes over. When a
high judge (Michael Douglas) is appointed to deal with the drugs issue, his
own daughter (Erika Christensen) becomes an addict. We also have a Mexican
police officer (Benicio Del Toro) who is asked by the US to help them, but
has problems with his corrupt boss (Tomas Milian), and we follow two DEA
Agents (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán) who caught a key witness in the trial
against the major dealer I mentioned earlier.
Soderbergh gives such a terrific insight without confused story lines. We
always know who we are watching, even though there are many main characters.
To makes things a little easier he uses his cinematography to distinguish
his worlds from each other. The Mexican storyline is shown in yellow colors,
the world around the judge and his daughter is in blue, and the world of the
DEA Agents and their key witness is seen in normal colors. Even the camera
shows us that it does not really want to make a point, only to observe. In
an audience the camera seems to be one of the audience members, always
hand-held, a little moving, like it is just watching the action.
Soderbergh's direction and own cinematography are terrific, combined with
the terrific performances you have something close to a masterpiece. Benicio
Del Toro and Don Cheadle amazed me the most, Zeta-Jones has a great scenes
when she visits her husband in jail and some dealers in Mexico, Douglas is
solid as always. 'Traffic' seems to know that a real solution to the drugs
problem is far from reality, showing why is a great achievement.