Traffik (Review)
Traffik is an Hour and A Half of People Making Dumb Decisions
You ever watch a horror movie and wonder why anyone would make the stupid choices the main characters always seem to make in them? Well, Traffik is over an hour and a half of that. Of course, most movie plots can’t really progress unless the heroes are dumb as stumps. To make matters worse though, the characters in Traffik are so unlikeable that it’s hard not to hope the bad guys get them, and those bad guys are racist, white trash, sex traffickers. So, that’s really saying something.
The film opens establishing Paula Patton’s, Brea a reporter who doesn’t seem to understand what reporting actually is. Within a few minutes her characters pretentious and condescending attitude, specifically shown when she is upset that an article she had been working on for months is scooped. Why was she working on it for months? Because she wanted to teach readers about the first corrupt politician to ever exist. Sure it sounds like a “fun” thought piece to post on your weekend blog, but that’s not exactly what an editor might want in a major news story that should have broken weeks ago. Of course, her unwavering sense of “truth” and “justice” continues to overpower common sense for the rest of the film.
Then there’s Darren Cole (Laz Alonso). The necessary asshole that Traffik seems to require in order for the stakes to raise in the second act. A narcissist incapable of considering the feelings of anyone else or considering for a moment the consequences of his actions outside of himself, Darren manages to be the exact opposite of Brea, and yet is her spiritual twin. He’s just a lot more aggressive when it comes to his self-centeredness. That’s a good thing though, I guess, since if anyone actually took the time to use logic in the movie, then it would be over pretty quickly.
The rest of the cast though is actually pretty tolerable. Well, save for the racist sex traffickers, since they’re just as obtuse as the protagonists they’re terrorizing. The whole film is based on the fact that one of the girls they’re trying to sell slips a satellite phone into Brea’s bag at a truck stop (something she somehow has in her possession). Said phone just so happens to be filled with pictures or women being held prisoner and plenty of phone numbers for pretty much everyone in their organization. It’s a pretty damning piece of evidence to own, let alone lose. Yet, lose it they do and Brea manages to use her keen skills as a reporter to unlock it, and doom herself and her friends.
The rest of the movie is pretty much a low key siege on the multi-million dollar cabin that the four friends are staying at. Since racist bikers don’t really have the charm to capture the audience’s attention for long periods of time, Traffik rolls out a British villain for some reason in the form of Luke Goss. Apparently, biker gangs in northern California involved in sex trafficking need a British leader to oversee day to day operations. Honestly, this sort of stupid is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this film though.
At its heart, Traffik is a movie that is trying to shine a light on the horrors of the sex trade and how it is happening all across the globe, even in our own backyard. Unfortunately, its intentions are meaningless in the face of stupid characters and writer/director Deon Taylor who enables them constantly throughout the movie. To make matters worse, he treats the sex trafficking ring in the film as if it were some sort of evil organization that seems more worthy of James Bond than Brea coming after them. Spanning the globe and reaching the highest powers. It tries so hard to make this group seem like such a big deal that it ruins the illusion. If it was just a brutal gang of bikers then that would have been fine and dandy. Its reach exceeds its grasp though and is absurd in the worst possible way.
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what audience Traffik had its heart set on wooing, because it’s a completely miserable piece of filmmaking. The more I think about it the worst I feel about wasting my time sitting through it. While 2018 having some many movies with such powerful commentary on social issues, Traffik does it’s a disservice. Especially since Taylor’s gaze as a director objectifies rather than empowers Paula Patton. It claws frantically trying to pull itself out of the deep dark hole and ends up managing to climb out of it. Definitely one of the more disappointing movies of the year.
