Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic" is a searing indictment of the so-called "War on Drugs" -- a war which, the film says, cannot
be won. It's not a very cheerful prospect, to be sure, and the film's insistence on keeping us at arm's length from the characters' emotions prevents it from being truly great, though the thought-provoking narrative makes it a pretty electrifying experience nonetheless. Three concurrent storylines are presented, each intriguing and each some way related to the others. Ostensibly the main character is Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas, finally allowing himself to look middle-aged and fatherly in a rich-guy sort of way), an Ohio judge recently appointed as the U.S. drug czar. His credibility is jeopardized somewhat by his daughter Caroline's (Erika Christensen) addiction to an array of drugs, which she does with her fellow upper-class private-school snobs (including one played with amusing know-it-all rebelliousness by Topher Grace from TV's "That '70s Show"). Meanwhile, Mexican police Javier (Benicio Del Toro) and Manolo (Jacob Vargas) are drifting somewhere between mild unethical behavior and outright corruption. (Purely honest law enforcement seems to be a myth in Mexico.) They become involved with Gen. Salazar (Tomas Milian), Mexico's new equivalent of a "drug czar," who is intent on destroying the Obregón cartel that runs drugs through Tijuana and into the states. The competing cartel, Juarez, wants the same thing, and Javier -- basically an honest man caught in the middle of some very desperate circumstances -- tries to play all sides equally.
To read the rest of this review, click on the relevant link below.