Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Writers: Jose Rivera (screenplay)
: Peter Landesman and Jose Rivera (story)
: Peter Landesman (based from article)
Major Cast: Kevin Kline, Cesar Ramos, Alicja Bachleda, Paulina Gaitan, Lina Emond, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, Tim Reid, Guillermo Iván, and Zack Ward
Rating: R for disturbing sexual material involving minors, violence including a rape, language and some drug content
Running Time: 2 hours
Trade is a crime drama about the sex trafficking trade where girls, boys, and women are often tricked and forced to become part of this illegal activity. This fictional story is based on a New York Times article. The movie opens with a young Mexican girl celebrating her birthday and enjoying the bike her older brother gave her. It is shortly after here where she is kidnapped. We follow Adriana and Jorge across the Mexican border into the United States. She finds herself in the back of a truck with other captives where they are subdued and controlled by any means necessary by the gang who is transporting them to New Jersey. He finds himself hesitant to trust the U.S. authorities, but finally lets his guard down at the insistence of a Texas cop named Ray, played by Kevin Kline. We find Ray had his own reasons for being in Mexico, and as he forms a bond with Jorge, they work together to hopefully bring Adriana to safety. This is a dose of a reality kind of movie where you wonder how can people do this to other people and still carry on with their lives with relative ease. For the sake of the heavy content, I can see why the movie ended the way it did. The movie had some great shots. The music score was also really good. I thought the actor/actress who portrayed the brother and sister were superb. I was surprised how well I enjoyed this movie when it ended, but wouldn’t have objected if it had been a little more ominous.
