Well Father Geek just received this note from our Dublin office and ol' Ozy our hardworking Irish news editor. Its a Brit's look at TRAFFIC, a motion picture that I for one can't wait to have hit the American screens full force.
If your touchy about SPOILERS you may want to avoid the following, its not excessive, buuuuut...
Hey guys, Ozymandias here...
One of our army of geek spies in the UK had a gander (as we say over here!) at the new Soderbergh the other nite..... He be Fieldman No.1:
A 'TRAFFIC' REVIEW
Hey guys, Ozymandias here...
One of our army of geek spies in the UK had a gander (as we say over here!) at the new Soderbergh the other nite..... He be Fieldman No.1:
A 'TRAFFIC' REVIEW
A 'TRAFFIC' REVIEW
Just caught a UK screening Of Traffic and while I'll try and avoid spoilers I can't make huge promises. Traffic tells a set of three or four stories all relating to the shipment of cocaine into the US. On the one level there's Benicio Del Toro as a customs cop right up to Michael Douglas as a Washington drugs czar. The stories intertwine and overlap but not in an overly flashy way its not like 'COOOOL!' when you see two characters from separate strands pass each other in the street but it does serve to show that the business effects different people in different ways at different levels. Less cool and more smooth.
Smooth is the operative word when describing 'Traffic'. Theres well a over a dozen main characters in as many plots and subplots unravelling but the efficiency in the way Lord Soderbergh edits the segments didn't fuck up my head at all. He also uses lots of different film stock and sound to help the jump from tale to tale. Very cool - the boys coming along nicely.
The performances are pretty damn slick as well. And there's a wiiiide array of actors and actresses that are very well loved and admired by Aint It Coolers at present; Don Cheadle, Luiz Gusman, Salma Hayek, Albert Finney are just a few of the thespos all obviously very pleased with being able to deliver nicely understated performances. Absolutely no grandstanding from anyone and if you like watching fine acting you'll love Traffic. Sorry, But Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich was still JULIA ROBERTS rather than 100% Erin.
Was Michael Douglas MICHAEL DOUGLAS? No not really. His characters job is to watch and learn and calculate as he realises he is waging a war that he cannot win. When he realises his daughter is a junkie he becomes ever so slightly the angry, impotent yet fighting Douglas we have seen in 'Falling Down' and apart from a slightly cheesy 'inability to deliver a speech scene' at the end he really did a fine job. His daughter is played by a young filly by the name of Erika Christensen, shes like Julia Stiles, only with the ability to act very well. You couldn't help thinking about Harrison in Douglas' part though, but I bet old Greypubes regrets not taking it.
I don't like films that make consciously manipulative attempts to pull at your heartstrings or give you a fix of sanitised fast-food outrage that Spielberg is so good at. (Sorry chaps but the man is pretty cynical at trying to make you care). With 'Traffic' I was impressed by the style but wanted to feel and care more about what was going on. I wanted to be shocked at the drugs trade - I wasn't. I wanted to be outraged at the ineptitude of the US customs and shocked at the high level corruption in Mexico, I wanted to hiss at the hitman. But everything was just a little detached for me - But watching Benicio watch baseball made me smile.
All round a very classy film indeed that goes even further to prove that Soderbergh is shaping up to be one of the best directors working in Hollywood.
Cheers
FieldmanNo.1
