Lost in the translation was a tougher sense of the global politics of the drug industry, and a more confronting set of dramatic and ethical quandaries. WHEN asked to define the postmodern condition, the American critic Dana Polan characterised it as a culture turning over so rapidly that those who vote for Academy awards can remember only the last few blockbuster movies that have been rammed down their throats. Steven Soderbergh's Traffic is the latest American film to benefit from this amnesiac buzz.
Traffic is a modestly good movie.
Lost in the translation was a tougher sense of the global politics of the drug industry, and a more confronting set of dramatic and ethical quandaries. But Soderbergh's film demands to be judged on its own terms. And it does make for compelling viewing as it whisks between Mexico and the United States, zeroing into the territorial border at which all sorts of shady transactions happen. Those who remember Traffik will quickly see how much Soderbergh pulls his punches in the depiction of Helena's transformation. Although pretending to tackle a hard subject, Traffic merely flirts with its political and moral themes.