Michael Douglas, one of the few marquee names in Traffic's huge cast, plays an Ohio Supreme Court judge just about to be elevated to national status as the nation's top drugs cop but hobbled, on the home front, by a daughter who gets top grades at her private school but who, during the course of the film, becomes a full-fledged junkie. His professional and personal stories provide the wide spectrum against which Traffic tells its stunningly realistic, appalling tale of the soldiers, good and evil, at the trenches on both the Mexican and U.S. side. You get dizzy with all the geographic changes at the start, but once you get the sense of Soderbergh's staccato rhythm, that becomes less disconcerting. Although Douglas, in another of his patented American power broker turns, is the big name in the group, the high impact performances in this movie come from a truly stunning company of character actors. Albert Finney add significantly to the texture of the piece.
Most folks go to the movies to leave their troubles behind.
That's one among many worthy uses of the medium. Soderbergh's Traffic works another one, though. In compelling terms, it puts bitter economic, social and racial truth before our eyes. Continue to blink or see. A USA Films release.