|
In the coils of the drug trade
[Photo: USA Films]
Dennis Quaid, who plays a shifty lawyer in Traffic, helps his pregnant client, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, the oblivious wife of a drug lord. |
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 4, 2001
Traffic offers no panaceas, but its intelligent weaving together of complex issues yields an insightful, if grim, tale.
|
 |
Steven Soderbergh's Traffic plunges headlong into a messy situation, barely giving viewers time to catch up with what's going on. That's the point. Too many people have been behind the curve too long with regard to narcotics trafficking and abuse.
Soderbergh doesn't have answers. Who does? All he can do is point fingers at dysfunctional families and policies, corrupt enforcers, legal loopholes and the cartels that crawl through them. Traffic isn't a rant, but a cinematic flow chart of a vast, unregulated industry without beginning or end. It's the ultimate chicken-and-egg debate: Whose special interests come first?
Traffic ambitiously considers all possible answers, from Tijuana cops to Washington politicos and the layers in between. Soderbergh assembled a large cast, but Traffic isn't an Altmanesque ensemble piece, since these parallel stories rarely converge on screen. However, each subplot is a sample of a wider group somehow motivated by drugs. That's their link, and our lesson.
Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) is the most conflicted character, an Ohio judge appointed as the nation's drug czar. His outsider status in Washington means that he must learn along with the audience about lobbyists and government officials gumming up the so-called war on drugs. Robert is also becoming aware of his teenage daughter's severe drug abuse. America's top narc can't even keep his own home clean.
Wakefield has nothing and everything in common with Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro), a Mexican policeman paid $316 per month. He chips a little off tourists with stolen-car scams, but Javier is basically a good cop busting smugglers. Javier impresses a general (Tomas Milian) investigating a cartel, crossing the border into deeper trouble.
[Photo: USA Films]
In Traffic Michael Douglas plays Robert Wakefield, the nation’s drug czar, who is unaware that drugs are taking a toll on his daughter.
|
Stephen Gaghan's screenplay probes deeper into this biopsy of an international cancer. A mid-level dealer (Miguel Ferrer) is captured, and two detectives (Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman) convince him to testify against his boss, a respected businessman (Steven Bauer). Gaghan uses their confrontations for lively debate about the futility of drug enforcement compromised by people like Robert Wakefield.
The defendant's pregnant wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is unaware of her husband's narcotics trade, while enjoying the good life it provides. She'll do anything to protect that lifestyle, including some far-fetched activities for someone who couldn't read "DEA" on the jackets of agents arresting her husband nor figure out what was going on. Her shifty lawyer (Dennis Quaid) fills her in.
Traffic also spends time with addicts, but not the usual down-and-out users. They're Robert's daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) and her private school pals. Soderbergh brings the drug problem into tony neighborhoods, where honor students smoke crack purchased in slums.
Soderbergh doesn't pull any punches in trying to cram every possible scenario into these minidramas. Caroline fares the worst, sexually degrading herself for her habit. Javier's professional problems are compounded by a suspicious partner and a worried wife. Robert's crash course in drug policy feels like a documentary work-in-progress. In fact, Soderbergh could make a feature-length film of any subplot that Gaghan's script compacts.
Instead, Soderbergh deftly juggles the stories, revealing just enough to answer some questions while raising new ones. There is no finale for the topic, so the director methodically builds each story to a satisfactory conclusion. Traffic recalls the driven, quasi-cinema verite of The French Connection, dissecting the drug industry while attaching human lives to crime statistics. It's vibrant storytelling from a filmmaker (Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich) currently on a roll.
Most striking is Soderbergh's cinematography, credited to his pseudonym Peter Andrews. Much of the film uses hand-held cameras, adding to the urgency. His boldest move is using various color tints: dusty brown for Mexican sequences, steely blue for the corridors of justice. The first impression is that it's merely a stunt, an arty way to clarify locales.
As Traffic progresses, color schemes begin commenting on the characters. Watch the scene at the Wakefield family's dining table. Interiors are bathed in blue because Robert's position dictates policy there, too. Dinner, however, is different.
Robert's face is half-shaded in blue, the other half in natural hues as he "lightens up" at home. His wife (Amy Irving) appears totally flesh-colored; she knows nothing except normal. The blue tints cast on Caroline suggest she'll be one of her father's statistics soon. Soderbergh/Andrews continually toys with the conceit until Javier's browns blend with Robert's blues in a tragic mural populated by cops, criminals and victims of all kinds.
Performances are solid, although the scope of the drama (135 speaking parts in eight cities) limits some good actors to virtual cameos. Two standouts: Douglas' established persona of crumbling cool is perfect for Robert. Del Toro, a Golden Globe nominee for this performance, speaks Spanish most of the time, yet his tired eyes and slouching goodness nearly make subtitles unnecessary.
The moral turns out to be another open-ended question about the war on drugs: "How do we wage war on our families?" Soderbergh doesn't know, either, but he's certain that somebody needs to take the first shot.
|
View a clip
|
 |
Traffic
- Grade: A
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Cast: Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid, Luis Guzman, Erika Christensen, Topher Grace, Miguel Ferrer, Amy Irving, Tomas Milian, James Brolin, Benjamin Bratt, Steven Bauer, Salma Hayek
- Screenplay: Stephen Gaghan, based on Simon Moore's television miniseries Traffik
- Rating: R; pervasive drug abuse, violence, profanity, sexual situations
- Running time: 147 min.
Back to Weekend
© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111
|
