It’s strange that Traffic feels like such a forgotten movie, considering it won several Oscars for director Steven Soderbergh, including Best Director. Some may think the film’s “war on drugs” theme is outdated, and maybe it is. But having recently rewatched the film for the first time in years, I can attest to the fact that it’s a solid, vibrant, and well-made adult drama. Adapted from a British TV series, Traffic is an epic tale that follows multiple characters and their connections to the illegal drug trade. Michael Douglas plays a tough-on-drug politician whose daughter becomes addicted to methamphetamine, Benicio Del Toro (in his Oscar-winning role) plays a Mexican cop, and Catherine Zeta-Jones is a pregnant woman who finds out her husband is a drug lord and gets caught up in the dirty deeds. Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan weave these stories together to create one big story that shows not only the insidiousness of drug addiction, but also the powerlessness of government agencies to actually do anything about it.
