(Review originally written at 17 July 2005)
The movie has not only a very raw story, it also has a very raw look. "Traffic" is told almost documentary like and the most excellent cinematography, acting and dialog all contribute to the movie its raw documentary like feeling.
The movie features several different plot lines with different characters but all stories are connected by one thing; drugs. The movie doesn't try to make things look better than they are, or give a hopeful message, it just shows how it is. The movie is very direct, straight to the point and confronting. The story and the situations all feel very realistic and that's also one of the reasons why this movie looks more like a documentary than a movie.
Each storyline literally has its own color which works perfect and truly also adds to the atmosphere. Each storyline line is told like a movie on its own, with equally as much running time.
The actors is also a reason why this movies works so well and is so extremely powerful. All of the actors give a very natural performance. Not only the main actors (Again director Soderbergh attracted an impressive cast with lots of big well known names.) but also the supporting actors. Apparently the movie has 135 speaking parts and I haven't seen one case of bad acting. But truly the one actor that really stands out is Benicio Del Toro. What an extremely good performance! Truly Oscar worthy. Also worth mentioning is Tomas Milian as the Mexican general Salazar.
Seriously I can understand why a person will find this movie to be boring, I guess you just have to a bit of a movie-buff to fully appreciate and see the 'beauty' and the profession this movie is made with. The acting, the directing, the cinematography, the editing, it all works just brilliant in this movie!
A brilliant, unique, one of a kind movie.
10/10
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