Traffic

Traffic is an intelligent and complex movie about the drug problem in the USA and the illegal drug trade across the Mexican border.

As in Robert Altman's kaleidoscopic ensemble movies Traffic also presents a set of characters who are not directly connected and they all have very different attitudes to the drug trade.

Michael Douglas plays the new drug czar, Robert Wakefield, who is in charge of the drug war. He faces serious personal problems when he discovers that his own teenage daughter is a drug abuser. Benicio Del Toro deservedly won an Oscar for the part of the honest Mexican policeman Javier Rodriguez who resists temptation. Other characters are less sympathetic but the performances are great.

In spite of its serious subject and sober style Traffic is highly entertaining and it never feels too long.