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'Trade' Review |
Excellent Review: |
Trade — Rated: R
• Disturbing Sexual Material involving Minors
• Violence including a Rape
• Language
• Drug content
• Very Important topic of Sex Trafficking.....that gets Slightly Cheapened by a Guy/Road-Trip Subplot!
• Danny really admires the Balls it took for the people invovled to make a movie like this.
Running Time: 119 Minutes
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"Danny's Personal Feelings About
Trade"
Trade"
Featured Movie Review:
TRADE
TRADE
"You'll Pay For This"
Copyright © 2007 Lions Gate,All Rights Reserved
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Trade is a Very Hard movie to watch.....Trust Danny on this!
For most people, watching this movie will be a very unpleasant (but eye-opening) experience.
It's not Visually Graphic to the point of actually showing Pedophilia taking place.....but the movie gets it's point across anyway.
This is a movie that wants to send out the message that Sex Trafficking involving Children exists in every country in the world including the United States.
This is one of those low budget, independently produced movies that NO Big Movie Studio would touch with a hundred foot pole because of the controversial subject matter.
Trade is based on an article written by Peter Landesman called "The Girls Next Door". The article appeared in The New York Times Magazine back in January 2004. You can read the original article at Nytimes.com (new window) |
What surprised Danny the most was who I saw listed as one of the producers: Ronald Emmerich.
He's the guy who directed Independence Day, Godzilla, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 B.C.
I'm sure everyone in the world has seen one of his movies at least once .....they are big on Special Effects but small on Story or Believable Characters.
The movies he directs are usually Pretty Corny.....BUT they are always Profitable because he knows what his audiences want to see and he Always Delivers.
Most of his movies are usually marketed towards teenagers and young adults .....so to see his name listed as a Producer on a movie like Trade was a surprise to Danny.
Trade is unlike any other movie that Ronald Emmerich has made before.....
"This Movie Shows You The
Vicious Underworld Of Sex Trafficking"
Vicious Underworld Of Sex Trafficking"
The story is about a young 13-year old Mexican girl named Adriana (played by Paulina Gaitan) who is kidnapped off the street in Mexico City.
Her kidnappers are Russians who run brothels that force poor girls (and boys) into prostitution.
She's drugged up and smuggled out of Mexico with other young kids.....they literally walk across the border into the United States (specifically, the state of Texas).
The movie shows Mexican Border Guards taking money and/or getting "Sex Freebies." I don't know if this is Actual Fact or if it's just an Exaggeration created by the movie. But I definitely believe that for a Huge Illegal Global Network like Sex Trafficking to exist.....there has to be plenty of Cops and Politicians who are getting paid to "Look the other Way." |
Also being smuggled into the U.S. is a Young Polish Girl in her early 20's.....her name is Veronica (played by Alicja Bachleda-Curuś).
Veronica was kidnapped and forced into the sex slavery business. Her parents and infant son are threatened with torture and death if she doesn't conform to her captor's demands.
Adriana's older brother, Jorge (played by Cesar Ramos), finds out what's happened to his little sister and sets out to rescue her before she gets "Auctioned Off".
This auction is done online with thousands of potential buyers from all over the world participating in the auction.....basically it operates just like eBay!
The auction is run out of a "Stash House" in New Jersey.
Peter Landesman, who wrote the The Girls Next Door article, says that he toured a "Stash House" in Plainfield, NJ. In this "Stash house", Young Mexican Girls were chained up in the basement where they were "Rented" out to Pedophiles. These girls were NOT Illegal Aliens who snuck into the United States to make Money. They were Young Sex Slaves who were Kidnapped (or Sold by their Parents) and Smuggled into the United States. These Girls were Not given any Money and were treated more like Animals then Human Beings. Plainfield, NJ is only about 15 miles from where I grew up in Elizabeth, NJ.....but it's only one of dozens of "Stash Houses" operating in the NY/NJ Metro Area. Other major Cities have "Stash Houses" too .....where Young Girls and Boys from many Poor Countries are Smuggled into the U.S. through the U.S./Mexico Border. |
Along the way, Jorge meets a Retired Texas Cop named Ray (played by Kevin Kline) who agrees to help Jorge find his sister by driving to New Jersey from Texas.
Meanwhile, Veronica takes on the responsibility of trying to be a mother-figure to these kids who're going to be sold off. She tries to protect them many times....but she's not able to.
The scenes involving the "Inner Workings" of the sex trafficking business is the strongest part of Trade.
Showing the Movie-Going Public the "Inner Workings" of Sex Trafficking tells me the purpose of this movie.....
"The Purpose Of This Movie Is To
Shock People"
Shock People"
The purpose of Trade is to show us the sleazy underworld of Human Sex Trafficking in order to SHOCK Decent People into Action.
Honestly, I don't think this subject is a shocking as it would have been about Twenty Years Ago.
After all, you can usually find stories like these on most Drama Shows and Talk Shows shown on Network TV.
But this movie shows Sex Trafficking from the point-of-view of the girls who are being sold as sex slaves.
This is what makes the movie hard to watch.....while the movie doesn't explicitly show children being raped, the movie makes it very clear what will happen to these girls.
This is because of a very graphic Rape Scene involving Veronica drives the point home that these girls are no longer People entitled to Basic Human Rights.....they are now thought of as Property, like a Piece of Luggage or something.
There is a intense scene which involves Young Adriana being taken into a vacant cornfield in Texas.....where pedophiles have sex with the children without being detected.
Again, nothing is shown explicitly but the movie doesn't sugarcoat what's going to happen.
Trade walks that thin line that separates a serious movie with a message .....and a movie that is exploitive of children.
No matter what this movie's Intentions may have been.....
"This Movie Undermines It's Own Message With An Unnecessary Sub-Plot"
You are NOT going to enjoy this movie.
It's one of those movies where you either Love it for it's strong message or Hate It because of it's strong message.
Most people would rather not know about things like Children sold as Prostitutes because it's too disturbing.
I thought Trade did a good job with this kind of graphic material while, at the same time, not appearing to be pornographic or exploitive to kids.
But based on the bad reviews that Trade received from most critics, I'm in the minority on that opinion.
A lot of critics thought that the movie was exploitive and that it would have been better to film this as a Real Documentary with Real Interviews of Real Victims.
To tell you the truth, I think the critics are right about that second point.....if the real intention of the movie was to shed light on Sex Trafficking, then it should have been made as a documentary.
But since Trade is a movie with a budget of about $12 Million, it tries to appeal to a wider audience to re-coup the financial investment.
Danny thinks this is why the characters of Ray and Jorge are in this movie.....the appearance of these two characters is what the critics hated most of all about Trade.
I definitely agree that the "Weakest Part" of the movie is when these two characters join forces to save Adriana.....but not to the point of Hating the entire movie.
This is how Danny sees it:
Ray and Jorge are put into Trade to try to lighten the tone of the movie by making their scenes together similar to a scenes typically seen in Budding/Road-Trip Movies.
Both of them are in a car together and they're getting to know each other.
They both of humorous misunderstandings — Jorge has pre-conceived notions about ALL Americans and Ray has pre-conceived notions about ALL Mexicans.
The scenes are full of the "Gringo" American learning to be tolerant of the Mexicans and vice versa.....it was like watching The Odd Couple!
This movie is dealing with very dark subject matter.....adding artificial entertaining moments, when you already know what is happening with these Sex Slaves, weakens the "Message" of the movie.
I understand why the movie felt it was important to include the cultural differences and "Misunderstandings" between Americans and Mexicans.....but the Main Focus of the movie should have been on the Sex Slaves.
If the point of the movie is to "Open People's Eyes" to this Disgusting Business.....then there shouldn't be anything "Entertaining" at all in this movie!
If you read many of the movie critics, they point to the Ray/Jorge Sub-Plot as one of the main reasons why they dis-liked Trade so much.
Not the mention that Cesar Ramos (who plays Jorge) obviously can't speak English very well.....and it affects his performance in the movie.
His acting is Great in the first half of the movie when he only speaks Spanish (his native language) which he's obviously comfortable with.
But once he starts speaking English, the quality of his acting goes down.....not a whole lot but it was noticeable. He looked uncomfortable because he was struggling with his English.
All of Adriana's dialogue is in Spanish.....so her acting performance is Solid from beginning to end.
This movie also makes Another Mistake.....
"Trade Also Makes The Mistake Of
Trying To Tack On An Unrealistic
Hollywood Happy Ending"
Trying To Tack On An Unrealistic
Hollywood Happy Ending"
Also Ray and Jorge are in Trade to give the audience a glimmer of hope that Adriana and Veronica will be saved.
Trade tries a little too hard to tack on a "Happy Ending".
"Happy Endings" seem to be a requirement of any movie that Roland Emmerich is involved in.
As a Movie Fan.....Sure, I want Adriana and Veronica to be saved!
But in Reality, how many girls are actually saved from these situations???
By trying to tack on a "Happy Ending", Trade kind of chicken's out in the end.....it lets the audience "Off The Hook."
The truth is that there is not going to be any "Hollywood Happy Endings" for children forced into Sex Slavery.
Danny thinks that Trade would've been a better movie if the "Search and Rescue" storyline had been left on the cutting room floor.
It doesn't hurt to have a respected actor like Kevin Kline starring in this "Indie" movie. His name gives the movie more credibility and marketing potential to reach a broader audience. However, if Trade had been made into a Documentary.....there would be no need for Kevin Kline's services. Without Kevin Kline, the credibility and marketing potential of the project is no longer there.....which ultimately means Less Profit at the Box Office. Remember, that the people who invested money into Trade want a Return on their Investment. While I'm sure some part of them hopes that this film will increase awareness of the problem of Sex Trafficking, their first Priority is to "The Bottom Line." If you Really want to know the Motives behind ANYTHING, then you must..... If I were to Invest in a Money, I would also want a Return on My Investment. But I have an Ethical Problem with trying to Make a Profit on a Movie like Trade which Claims that it's Number One Priority is to raise awareness about Sex Trafficking. |
Even though their storyline was un-necessary, both Kevin Kline and Cesar Ramos give pretty solid performances.
But the standouts is this movie are both Alicja Bachleda-Curuś and Paulina Gaitan!
They both give Gutsy, "Ballsy" Performances!
The Guys definitely have it easy compared to the Girls in this movie!
"CAST
OF
TRADE"
OF
TRADE"
as Ray | as Jorge |
as Veronica | as Adriana |
as Irina Silayev | as Vadim Youchenko |
as Detective Henderson | as Patty Sheridan |
as Alex Green | as Laura |
as Thai Boy |
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