But the film's effectiveness is diluted by its squeamishness and even dishonesty about the racial aspect of the matter.
Traffic tells three intercut stories.
The film, based on the British TV miniseries Trafik , is shot in a bustling, semi-documentary style that gives it an air of authenticity and immediacy. The best parts of Traffic function equally well as drama and as social polemic. In Traffic , he gets mostly good performances, particularly from Del Toro, who's marvelous. The trouble is traceable to the screenplay. Yet it's also indisputable that the biggest victims of both drugs and the drug war are not overprivileged suburban teenagers free-basing cocaine.