DRUG WAR DRIVES DRAMA IN `TRAFFIC'

The insidious nature of drugs - and the often-futile efforts to stop them -
are put under a revealing microscope in Traffic, the second Oscar-worthy
effort from filmmaker Steven Soderbergh in less than a year.

Nine months after creating Erin Brockovich, Soderbergh is back with a
darker, grittier, more broadly based film about a social concern.

Some might argue it's the social concern of the age, since it reaches into
all strata of our society and triggers so many other conflicts and tragedies.

The screenplay by Stephen Gaghan (of Rules of Engagement) successfully
adapts a BBC TV series, Traffik, to the drug problems in and around the
United States.

To examine the problem - and the less-than-stellar war being waged against
it - Soderbergh and Gaghan intertwine several related stories, centered on
the U.S.-Mexican border.

They populate the stories with realistic characters, played by a brilliant
ensemble.

Michael Douglas stars as Robert Wakefield, an Ohio judge just appointed
federal drug czar. But just as he delves deep into the workings of the
anti-drug bureaucracy, his daughter (Erika Christensen) experiments with
increasingly dangerous drugs, under pressure from her preppie friends.

Meanwhile, a concerned Tijuana cop (Benicio Del Toro) tries to work
diplomatically between the Mexican drug dealers and corrupt officials,
while a wealthy San Diego businessman and drug dealer (Steven Bauer)
shields his dirty business from his pregnant wife (Catherine Zeta- Jones).

In San Diego, two cops (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman) try to ensnare a drug
kingpin but are repeatedly thwarted.

Soderbergh keeps a firm grip on his complex, multi-layered narrative and
has no trouble sustaining viewer interest for nearly 2" hours.

The ever-improving director helps clarify his subject matter through subtle
shifts in film style: The Mexican scenes involve grainy, golden images,
sequences in Washington have a crisp, steel-blue tint, San Diego scenes are
bright and colorful and so on.

Soderbergh shot the film himself, mostly with a hand-held camera. (Credit
regulations forced him to adapt a different name as cameraman - therefore
he is credited as Peter Andrews.)

The tone is hard-core docudrama but with an epic resonance you don't often
find in newsreel-styled movies. ( Schindler's List is another that had it,
in a different, more intense way.)

The performances are all strong, though Del Toro stands out, bringing
poignant humanity to his intense struggles on the drug war firing line.

Traffic is a major achievement and is destined to be one of the best films
of the year.