TRAFFIC Reviewed by Jerry Saravia January 17th, 2001
Is it me or does director Steven Soderbergh have something akin to a great track record? From "Sex, Lies and Videotape" to "Schizopolis" to "The Limey" to two fairly good Hollywood productions, "Erin Brockovich" and now "Traffic," the latter two released the same year. And "Traffic" is not merely good, serviceable Hollywood entertainment, it is damn near great.
Soderbergh's "Traffic" is concerned with drug trafficking in America and in Mexico, and how the war on drugs from the top has outlived its purpose. Michael Douglas is Robert Wakefield, a Supreme Court justice becoming the newly appointed drug czar of America (an unfilled position in Mexico), who is taking steps to prevent this drug war from continuing. His ideas, however, are met with a cool reception from his staff. Why? Because the war on drugs is a fruitless one accompanied by far too many dangerous parameters - economic is one such factor of any such parameters. Wakefield eventually meets with General Salazar (Tomas Milian), who resides in Tijuana and appoints a clever border cop, Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) to raise ire among the cocaine cartels. The questions is: does Salazar have something else in mind or does he really want to bust them and torture them? Is he as concerned about the manufacturing and exporting of cocaine as Del Toro is, or for that ma! ! tter, the righteous Wakefield?
"Traffic" shifts from different characters and locales throughout, and gradually we see how others are affected by this chain of command in the U.S. and Tijuana. There is the drug lord, Carlos Ayala (Steven Bauer), who is arrested and sent to jail, leaving his pregnant wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) to fend for his illegitimate business, something she was not aware of. We also see Caroline (Erika Christensen), a top-notch high school student who innocently becomes a sleepy-eyed cocaine addict - she also turns out to be Wakefield's daughter. Then there are the undercover DEA agents (Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman) who bicker and joke, even when arresting a mid-level trafficker, Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer) - the job of the dual agents is to protect Ruiz who is likely to be rubbed out. This, of course, would allow the release of Ayala from jail.
"Traffic" is at its most tantalizing when dealing with Del Toro's moral conflict of speaking out on the corruption in his own country, or of keeping his mouth shut in the face of inevitable tragedy. The Tijuana scenes are the most powerful, evoking the futility of drug warfare where no end is seen in sight. Del Toro realizes this, thus being a rat or staying loyal essentially makes no difference. He can only save his own skin.
This is also true of Wakefield's own job, which is put into question when he discovers his daughter's addiction. Wakefield himself is not a happy man, living a life of boredom as he calls it with his family and seeking an exit with alcohol. This upsets his wife (Amy Irving), but their relationship is really put to the test with their daughter's problems and the fact that she becomes a runaway. How can Wakefield save the country from drug warfare if he can't even save his own daughter?
Speaking of aesthetics for the time being, "Traffic" temporarily annoyed me with its visual look. As shot by Soderbergh himself, he uses filters for the sepia-drenched scenes in Tijuana and the cool blue colors of Washington, D.C. but these scenes stand out at first for being far too obvious. Just remember what notable cinematographer Nestor Almendros once said about filters: "Any movie that I see that uses filters, I shut off after five minutes because it is too easy." He may have had a point, but admittedly, once the film is on course and speeds along its multi-based narrative, I found the filtering less and less annoying. I still feel I should not have to be reminded where I am - Tijuana, by all accounts, is certainly different from Washington, D.C. A minor quibble.
Soderbergh's real strengths are with actors, and he has quite a stupendous cast on hand to work with. Del Toro is at his most blazingly understated ever, challenging us and keeping us guessing at every moment as to what his thoughts are in contrast with his actions. He is so unpredictable, funny, tense, dramatic, and emotional that it remains the most dynamic role I've seen in all of 2000.
Major kudos also go to Zeta-Jones playing a charming housewife, also challenged by the lies from her husband and his business, and it is alarming to see the shift in her character from paranoid to ruthless (still, there is a missing transitional scene or two showing this transformation). Michael Douglas (who shares no scenes with his wife, Zeta-Jones) does his damnedest playing a man pressured by everyone from up above, yet showing a tender, sympathetic side when confronted with familial problems.
Also noteworthy are Cheadle and Guzman performing their bickering byplay as if leftovers from a Paul Thomas Anderson flick, and they are so engaging and entertaining that it is hard to forget them. They seem to come from a mediocre action picture but their personalities infuse their characters with humor and sublime restraint. I love the scenes they share with Ferrer, who sees himself as an average businessman and reminds Cheadle that the DEA's job is not only fruitless but it also helps the drug trade. After all, if Ferrer has to pack up and go to jail, someone else can always take over.
"Traffic," based on a 1989 British miniseries of the same title, is not an original crime epic but its treatment of an ongoing problem in America is breathlessly and magnificently executed by the wondrous Steven Soderbergh. Despite a lack of real insight into some of the characters, the film will leave you with a knowledge of how drugs are big business in this country and how many would like to keep it that way. All we can do is protect and nurture our own families from this increasingly hopeless and, yes, fruitless problem.
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E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at jerry@movieluver.com or at Faust667@aol.com
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