Saturday, May 12, 2012

Trade

Dir: Marco Kreuzpaintner, 2007.

An earnest, well-made film that essentially is a documentary on the sex-trafficking of children from Mexico to the USA.  Many believable, and of course, ghastly sequences.

But in the end the narrative vehicle the film uses -- the jaded cop (Kevin Kline) who ends up helping a Mexican teen searching for his kidnapped sister -- seems cliche'd.  And the "happy" ending dodges the tough questions.  Can rescuing one girl be justified if it imperils an entire anti-smuggling operation?   And what are the real constraints - political, economic, and social -- under which these operations have to work?

2.5*
May 2012

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