Rama’s SCREEN

TRADE Review

September 30th, 2007 | Category: *DRAMA, On DVD, Rockin' Review

I understand that it’s a difficult task to film the issue of human trafficking, but usually when it comes to viral matters in life like this one, the filmmaker needs to address the message and present it in a way that will move the audience or at least make them think ‘There’s something wrong here, this ain’t right! And we gotta do something.”
To a certain level, this film manages to do just that but as far as the art of filmmaking goes,… it could’ve been better.

Adriana, a thirteen year old girl, is kidnapped Mexico by the people in human trafficking business. Her brother goes out of his way to find her even if it means trusting an American cop (Kevin Kline) who happens to be in similar problem. A woman from Poland is forced against her will and trapped in the same dark world, separated from her son and family.

Sex trafficking is a global problem, nobody will deny that, it kinda hit home for my people too because the part of the world where I came from is plagued with the same infection. Though the film only portrays Mexican and Polish victims, it’s disturbing to know for a fact that it could also happen in any neighborhood, even yours, and you don’t even know about it.

It is crucial to have films like TRADE available as a reminder, but just as important as that, the films need to be well-made, and I’m talking about Hotel Rwanda or Traffic kind of well made.
TRADE has the potential to be a contender but it focuses too much on the abuse and not so much on developing each of the characters, and I blame the writing.
The dialogue could be more powerful. Kevin Kline is an excellent actor, and a Oscar winner too, but because of the limit that this movie puts on him, we don’t really see how broken he is as a father haunted by mistakes of the past and unable to find his missing daughter.
TRADE, however, does well in depicting the smuggling of humans from Mexico to United States, the internet auction and the secret house with a basement.

A couple of years ago, there was a made for TV movie called ‘HUMAN TRAFFICKING’, which I highly recommend, starring Mira Sorvino, Donald Sutherland, and Robert Carlyle. In my opinion it’s a more effective movie at tackling this heartbreaking issue than the film TRADE.

* Place the cursor on the picture below to check my rating for this film