Available at Amazon.com
Director
Marco Kreuzpaintner
Cast
Kevin Kline ………. Ray Sheridan
Alicja Bachleda-Curus ………. Weronika
Paulina Gaitan ………. Adriana
Kate del Castillo ………. Laura
Cesar Ramos ………. Jorge
The Movie
The sex trade is one of the dirty underground worlds few people talk about and fewer truly know about. While the world deals with black market guns and global jihad, the underground sex trade involving minors and others forced against their will has remained an ugly pockmark in the ever increasing list of man’s inhumanity towards one another. And like all things, it now has a movie dedicated to it in Trade.
Based in part on a New York Times article, Trade follows three intersecting stories. Jorge (Cesar Ramos) is trying to find his sister Adriana (Paulina Gaitan), who has been kidnapped into the sex trade. Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline) is searching for something in his past. Weronika (Alicja Bachleda-Curus) joins Jorge’s sister in abduction as they are ferried from Mexico City to New Jersey for sale on an Internet web site. When Ray and Jorge cross paths in Juarez, their missions collide and they join forces to find Jorge’s sister and ultimately pay for her freedom. And while it has all the requisite setup for a film, including a gritty and dark look at the sex trade, the film is almost comical at times in term of being an overwrought melodrama.
Trade has a terrific setup in part because the cinematography throughout the film (but especially in the beginning) creates a wonderful atmosphere. Mexico City is shown as vibrant and colorful, despite the grit in the relatively poor neighborhood Jorge and his family live in, and Kreuzpaintner begins with a good introduction to the proceedings. There’s no long scroll to read to introduce us to the subject; he gets down to his story quick to get us involved quickly. He sets the tone and atmosphere markedly well; his setup is good but it’s in the execution that the film goes from potentially being great to being mediocre.
It’s almost a shame that Kevin Kline, an Academy Award winner, is in this. He brings a terrific, low-key performance as a police officer looking to solve a mystery in his past. He plays the part note perfect, but Kline is one of the more underrated actors of his generation so it’s not surprising. It’s a dark movie and a dark role; compared to his colleagues on the set Kline is an absolute professional and they are amateurs. While normally that would be something that be lauded during awards season, it’s more of an indictment of the supporting cast than it is a praise of Kline.
The supporting cast takes away from the film because they seem to be in the wrong sort of movie. It seems to be an after school special about the sex trade as opposed to a dark drama, which the director is clearly going for, and it totally ruins a lot of atmosphere. It turns a film, which admittedly is a bit plodding after the film’s initial tight 20 minutes, and makes it a bit difficult to watch on occasion.
Trade remains a fabulous looking, and wonderfully shot, film which falls apart once it’s required to do more than have terrific cinematography. It is worth a peek, though, for another top notch performance from Kevin Kline.
A/V QUALITY CONTROL
Presented in a Dolby Digital format with a widescreen presentation, Trade has a top notch audio/visual presentation. This is a film that has a lot of rich colors and scenery owing to its being shot in Mexico for large portions of principal photography. The colors are vibrant and come through cleanly while the audio uses the Dolby system effectively.
The Extras
Chasing Shadows is a twenty minute piece covering how the film came together. Based on the article “The Girls Next Door” in the January 24, 2004 issue of The New York Times Magazine, the producers bought the rights to the story because they felt it would be an interesting one. The piece doesn’t provide much in content, outside of the usual fawning by the cast and crew, however.
Paper to Print is a look at the film’s script. Going in, they wanted to tastefully tackle the subject matter without making it something a “pedophile would enjoy,” going to great lengths to show the sleaze of the situation but to not make it sleazy.
Also from Lionsgate are trailers for several recent and new DVD releases, including the remake of 3:10 to Yuma, Away from Her, Deliver Us from Evil, The U.S vs. John Lennon, and Control Room.
