TRAFFIC
2000

January 3, 2001

Camera 3 Sneak Preview

Michael Douglas. Don Cheadle. Benicio Del Toro. Luis Guzman. Dennis Quaid. Catherine Zeta-Jones. Erika Christensen. Topher Grace. Miguel Ferrer. Amy Irving.

The traffic of cocaine from Mexico to the US is shown from many angles.

Fabulous, huge cast is believable from top to bottom. The performances are superb. One standout is Christensen as Douglas' drug abusing daughter. She perfectly captures the neediness of teens and their untargeted anger at the world around them. Her descent from prep school student to on-the-lam abuser is fascinating. It's not as stylish as Connelly's descent in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, but her all-american looks are put to good use. The scene with her first heroin dose when a single tear of joy rolls down her cheek is unforgetable. The kid from THAT 70s SHOW is great as another rich kid who leads her to undesirables. I'm no fan of Zeta-Jones but she does a good job here as the naive wife of a bigwig trafficker. Her radical change from mousy wife to ball-crushing tough chick is one of the more unbelievable parts of the film. Del Toro is getting most of the press for his performance which is quiet and thoughtful and mostly in Spanish. If there's a problem with the film its that everyone can see what they want to in it. That is, if you believe in legalization of drugs, you'll find ammunition to support your idea. By the same token, if you want more border guards and less privacy rights, you'll see all you need on the screen as well. The film finds itself in the strange position of preaching to every choir.