TRAFFIC (USA Films) Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Michael Douglas, Erika Christensen, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Amy Irving, Luis Guzman. Screenplay: Stephen Gaghan, based on the BBC mini-series "Traffik" created by Simon Moore. Producers: Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and Laura Bickford. Director: Steven Soderbergh. MPAA Rating: R (drug use, violence, profanity, sexual situations) Running Time: 145 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
In most films about drugs or drug addicts, drugs themselves are an almost supernatural presence. Even the very good ones tend to turn addiction into a monster, something that stalks and consumes the people in the film -- a THC-laced Blob, or a Needle from the Black Lagoon. They may play with moral ambiguity, but ultimately they come down to a horror film mano a mano: Either the monkey kills the hero, or the hero kills the monkey.
In Steven Soderbergh's elusively gripping TRAFFIC, drugs are not a monster; they're not even the villain. Drugs become a character, crafted with more complexity and nuance than the human characters in most films. The broad canvas explores multiple perspectives on that strange entity called "the war on drugs." In Washington D.C., Ohio judge Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) prepares to become the United States' new "drug czar." Back in Cincinnati, Wakefield's daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) herself becomes part of the demand side of the problem. In San Diego, upper class housewife Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones) finds her world thrown into turmoil when her husband (Steven Bauer) is accused of being a drug lord, while a pair of Federal agents (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman) protect the star witness (Miguel Ferrer). And in Mexico, casually corrupt local police officer Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) gets involved in some far-less-casual corruption.
Based on a BBC mini-series, TRAFFIC sets up an ambitious scope that proves absolutely critical to its effectiveness. Every character in the film is in some way complicit in making the drug trade the violent beast it is, from the blatantly unconcerned Mexican officials, to the wealthy white teenagers whose pretentious expressions of existential despair ignore the real-world implications of their drug use. Zeta-Jones' Helena is initially sympathetic in her shock over discovering her husband's secret life, then a darker figure once concern for preserving her comfortable life overwhelms all other concerns. Perhaps most challenging of all, TRAFFIC asks what can be accomplished by a generation of Americans who continue to push publicly for anti-drug efforts while remaining ambivalent about the danger of the drugs that many of them used themselves in their youth. Steven Gaghan's script never once offers either a pat condemnation of anti-drug efforts or a simplistic demonization of the substances themselves. It's a rich, deeply thought-provoking piece of work.
It's not half-bad as pure film-making either. Soderbergh has become a master of incorporating stylistic innovation into relatively mainstream fare, and he scores again here. The scenes set in Mexico are given a grainy, saturated look that make the whole country look like it's suffering from a case of heat-stroke; there's a sharp, sudden contrast with an early courtroom scene shot in an icy blue. TRAFFIC often has an almost improvisational edge to it, and virtually every scene and performance feels kinetic and urgent. This is a film full of scenes that grab you without a hint of melodrama, full of background characters (Peter Riegert as Ayala's smug attorney, "That '70s Show's" Topher Grace as Caroline's cocky boyfriend) that burst to vibrant life. And that's saying nothing of at least one foreground character (Benicio Del Toro's conflicted cop) so splendidly performed that his scenes seem like part of a documentary.
TRAFFIC only hits speed bumps when the sheer density of the narrative becomes a hindrance. The script occasionally resorts to making speeches to make its points -- with Ferrer's mid-level dealer in particular uttering "you can't stop us" taunts to law enforcement -- as though afraid the points already made by the arc of the story would be lost in the shuffle. Some of the key characters feel vaguely under-developed, and there are a couple of late scenes and plot developments that feel forced into an already dense tale, giving TRAFFIC the sense of being over-loaded during its third act. It's still an awfully good third act, one that wraps up an even better movie with the perfect combination of harsh reality and genuinely satisfying optimism. I'm not sure you could say TRAFFIC ever takes a side on its difficult subject, unless it's the side that small, personal victories can still make a losing battle worth fighting. That's a refreshingly mature take on a subject that usually comes down to killing monsters.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 smuggler's blues: 9.
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