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Review by Jack Foley & Ethan Shaw |
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IN THE space of just two years, Steven Soderbergh has emerged from the barren
wilderness of movies such as Kafka and The Underneath to become one of the
must-see movie-makers of the moment.
Ever since the critical and commercial success of Out Of Sight, Soderbergh
has been on a hot streak which shows no sign of cooling. Less than 12 months
after delivering the glorious Erin Brockovich, the director has come up trumps
again with Traffic, a movie which critics are queuing up to heap praise upon.
And it is easy to see why. Traffic may be Soderbergh's most ambitious project
to date - featuring four random yet vitally interlocking stories and characters
based on the Channel 4 mini-series Traffik - but it remains a masterclass
in film-making; raw, riveting and totally believable. If Michael Mann's The
Insider blew the whistle on the US tobacco industry last year, then Traffic
exposes America's casualty-strewn war against the drug cartels - a battle
fought in the home as well as on the dust-ridden wastelands south of its border.
Both movies adopt a similar documentary-feel style, both like to make stark
use of colour (witness Soderbergh's sun-bleached Mexican landscapes, or the
whiter than white corridors of power); and both are driven by powerhouse performances.
Forget Pulp Fiction, with its larger than life gangsters and dubious morality,
this represents the thinking man's Tarantino, with characters that are grounded
in reality.
Principal among them are Benicio Del Toro's dogged Mexican cop, an enforcer
who refuses to succumb to the corruption surrounding him; Michael Douglas's
newly appointed drugs czar, whose battle against the cartels must start with
his own junkie daughter; Catherine Zeta-Jones's expectant high-society mother,
who opts to deal herself when her millionaire husband is taken into custody;
and Don Cheadle's wise-talking cop, who will stop at nothing to get his man.
All deliver perfectly apt performances and it is almost impossible to pick
from the bunch; Douglas's powerhouse government official is fantastic but
no more than on a par with Del Toro's simplistically understated yet absorbing
detective.
Cheadle, too, is compelling as he begins to question his methods and even
Zeta-Jones, hardly a heavyweight leading lady, manages to afford her anti-heroine
a strangely fascinating human touch - she has landed a Golden Globe nomination
to boot.
Each exist at various points on the drug spectrum and although they all appear
on the surface to be independent, the profound impacts they inflict on one
another is a virtuoso study in cause-and-effect. While much of the credit
goes to writer Stephen Gaghan, the real genius is Soderbergh and the manner
in which he intricately weaves his rich tapestry is truly enthralling.
Much will be made of the deliberate pre-production colour tampering to provide
each vignette its own idiosyncracy (Douglas - stark dawn blue and white; Del
Toro - twilight bleached yellow; Zeta Jones, Cheadle - rich technicolour)
indicating again the different positions each inhabit along the drug line.
Although impressive, it is hardly necessary, however; the deliberately paced
and carefully delivered storyline copes adequately on its own and provides
a fascinating insight into a tricky subject without becoming preachy or idealistic.
At times it even strays into documentary territory - coming across as a kind
of fly-on-the-wall look at America's increasingly futile battle with the drug
cartels - but even this doesn't detract and instead succeeds in raising the
tension.
Much of the slow-burning storyline may require a degree of patience for some
but it never drags and certainly delivers when it needs to with bursts of
action supported by clever dialogue throughout. It's Soderbergh at his brilliant
best, garnering superb performances from all his leads and employing them
efficiently and with an assured touch to realise his grander vision in full.
