‘Traffic’ sweeps the streets, audiences
It’s hard to make a movie about America’s drug problem without either glamorizing drug use or sounding puritanical.
“Traffic” approaches the story from several angles at once, painting a sweeping, objective picture that includes users and their families, dealers and law enforcement. This multifaceted presentation casts an appropriate light on a social problem that has evolved over decades to become an integral part of society.
Catherine Zeta-Jones plays the pregnant wife of a dealer. Until he is arrested, she believes he is a legitimate businessman. Faced with the reality of losing everything, she forges relationships with his Mexican suppliers and continues where he left off.
Michael Douglas is a prominent judge appointed to the not-so-coveted position of drug czar. This sets him up for some very predictable irony. He is an alcoholic and his daughter is addicted to crack.
Benicio del Toro plays a Tijuana cop who finds himself used as a pawn in a war between two local cartels. “Traffic” reveals a world where drugs effect everyone, not just junkies. Cartels with unlimited financial backing pump drugs into America as quickly and resourcefully as they can while law enforcement does what it can to stop them – stifling under the supervision of a bureaucracy more concerned with public image than fostering real solutions.
Although none of this is news to anyone, it is presented well enough to provoke reflection on a subject that is becoming less alarming by the day. This film reminds me of a book I read on the drug trade in America. A reporter traveled the country asking politicians and law enforcement officials the same question: “How come we aren’t solving our drug problem?”
The overwhelming response was simple: “We can’t win because nobody takes it seriously.”
The movie seems to suggest its own solution when it pauses to observe recovering addicts in treatment. The movie concludes with Douglas’s daughter finally starting to take her own treatment seriously. I suppose a nation without users would also have to be a nation free from drugs – but a drug-free America poses its own ominous set of problems. First, we could kiss any hope of having good music in the future good-bye. It was drugs that fueled the creative fire in our best artists. Their use is also what makes the really bad music of today bearable. I promise you won’t need them for “Traffic.” If you don” find the first subplot interesting, it’s a sure bet you’ll like another one. With something like six of them in the movie going on at once, it still takes enough time to make them all interesting. Director Steven Soderbergh weaves them all together cohesively, sending a pointed message to the careful viewer. If you thought drug sagas went out with “Miami Vice,” give “Traffic” a try.
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