'TRAFFIC' ENDS WAR ON DRUGS WITH MISTRIAL

HOLLYWOOD - Maybe because the opponent is so terrifying and insidious ("an
allergy of the body, an obsession of the mind," someone calls it here), our
desperation to win the war against drugs detailed in "Traffic" has made it
the most unexamined conflict of our time, something we are more than
willing to throw dollars at but not so eager to analyze and reconsider.

Given that, it took a certain amount of nerve to tackle the chaotic,
unfocused, largely unsuccessful waste of lives and money that is the drug
war today in a major motion picture with an ensemble cast including Michael
Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Complex and ambitious, "Traffic" is that
film, and its examination of how pervasive drugs are, how wide a swath they
cut in our society. Although not always completely successful, it is yet
another indication of how accomplished a filmmaker Steven Soderbergh has
become.

Soderbergh, whose equally sure-handed but very different "Erin Brockovich"
came out earlier this year, has once again opted for a change of pace. For
one thing, as written by Stephen Gaghan (based on a British TV miniseries),
"Traffic" intertwines several complex stories across two countries and
several cities without ever dropping a stitch.

At the same time, using the pseudonym Peter Andrews, Soderbergh has
expertly shot the film himself in a neo-documentary, run-and-gun style
whose emphasis on hand-held camera work adds to its immediacy (Soderbergh
has mentioned Costa-Gavras' "Z" as his model here).

Gaghan ("Rules of Engagement") has clearly done considerable research into
the film's theme, and his script is strongest in its broad outlines, its
ability to convey lots of information about the drug trade and show it to
be a kind of pernicious octopus, with tentacles powerful enough to make
almost everyone it touches corrupt, complicit or potentially so.

Unfortunately, "Traffic" is much less secure when it comes to dialogue and
the creation of individualized characters. Some of its narrative threads
are noticeably less compelling than others, and its people, no matter what
social strata they occupy, have a tendency to sound a lot like standard brands.

While keeping the notion of intertwined stories from the British original,
"Traffic" has sensibly changed the geographic focus from the Turkey-Britain
drug trade to the closer-to-home Mexico-U.S. situation. And by adroit use
of filters and other techniques, Soderbergh has given each segment
distinctive visual markings: a brown cast for Mexico, blue for Cincinnati
and environs, a bright look for San Diego.

The Mexican section (in Spanish with subtitles) is by far the most
effective, partially because it's got the film's best performance. That's
by Benicio Del Toro, an actor ("The Usual Suspects," "Snatch") who's always
been much admired for his subtle power. But his nuanced authority has never
been more on view than as a state policeman who goes to work for Gen.
Salazar (an effective Tomas Milian), the army's designated illicit-drug
fighter.

The film's biggest star is Douglas, a solid choice for Robert Wakefield, an
Ohio state Supreme Court judge who's just been selected as head of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy. A square shooter who believes in
his mission, Wakefield just happens to have a 16-year-old daughter (Erika
Christensen) who, unknown to him, is a major narcotics abuser. When the
judge says, "It's time to see the front lines," he doesn't realize the
battlefield is his own bathroom.

Weakest in terms of plausibility is the section involving Zeta-Jones as
Helena Ayala, a pampered wife who suddenly discovers that her husband
(Steven Bauer) and his oily attorney (Dennis Quaid) are major drug players.
Even with the expert assistance of Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman playing
anti-drug agents, this plot strand takes turns that are way too
questionable for its own good.

No matter what straits these people find themselves in at the film's
opening, "Traffic" inexorably tightens the noose around them. If the film's
plotting has a flaw, it's that in its eagerness to make its points in an
emotional way, it falls back too readily on the excesses of melodrama.

Finally, and perhaps inevitably, one of the difficulties with "Traffic" is
that it feels like the filmmakers are tiptoeing around the implications of
their good work. As a big-budget film in a controversial area, "Traffic"
seems especially eager to be seen as balanced and fair - for instance, to
the hard-working and sincere anti-drug agents putting their lives at risk.
So although it takes important steps in that direction, the film pulls back
from what seems to be its own logical conclusion: No matter how much money
we throw at the drug problem ($45 billion per annum at last count) nor how
heroically current policies are implemented by those at the front lines,
it's simply not working.

No one expects a Douglas-starring film, and one that has Sens. Orrin Hatch,
Barbara Boxer and Charles Grassley playing themselves, to take the kind of
strong stance for drug decriminalization that, for instance, New Mexico's
Republican Gov. Gary Johnson has. Still, many of the film's stronger
moments - such as when Douglas' character gets no response when he asks for
aides to think out of the box about the problem - point in that direction.
Given what this film shows, a clearer stand on decriminalization or even
treatment in place of prison seems in order. Without one, watching
"Traffic," artfully made though it is, feels a little like seeing a version
of "The Insider" that thought it politic to waffle on whether cigarettes
were a danger to your health.