4.5/5

Described by director Steven Soderbergh as "Nashville meets The French Connection," this multi-character drama explores the effects of international drug trafficking on all fronts: from their source, to the U.S. border, to the federal government, to the private lives of users. Based upon a miniseries originally aired on Britain's Channel 4, Traffic divides its time among three main storylines and almost a dozen locales. The first and primary plot thread, set in Ohio and Washington, D.C., concerns freshly-appointed drug czar Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), whose enthusiasm for his new prestige position is quickly offset when he realizes his 16-year-old daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) is graduating from recreational drug use to habitual abuse -- a secret that his wife, Barbara (Amy Irving), has kept from him. South of the border, Mexican cop Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) attempts to wage his own war on drugs, heading off a cocaine shipment in the middle of the desert with his less-than-virtuous partner Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas). Surrounded by corruption, Javier approaches the drug war with an attitude of patience and compromise, which opens him up to investigation from General Arturo Salazar (Tomas Milian), the country's dubious drug-enforcement liaison to the U.S. Meanwhile, San Diego drug kingpin Carlos Alaya (Steven Bauer) is caught in a sting operation spearheaded by DEA agents Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman), leaving behind his very pregnant and very oblivious wife, Helena (Catharine Zeta-Jones). At the behest of Carlos' lawyer and shady confidante, Arnie Metzger (Dennis Quaid), Helena decides to carry on the family business -- with tragic consequences.

Starring Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Luis Guzman, Dennis Quaid , Catherine Zeta-Jones , Steven Bauer , Benjamin Bratt , James Brolin , Erika Christensen , Clifton Collins Jr. , Miguel Ferrer , Albert Finney , Topher Grace , Amy Irving , Tomas Milian , D.W. Moffett , Marisol Padilla Sanchez , Peter Riegert , Jacob Vargas , Rena Sofer , Mario Roberts , Viola Davis.

Directed by one of my favorites, Steven Soderbergh. i will call this movie Soderbergh's best movie after Sex, Lies and Videotapes followed by Erin Brokovich and Ocean's Eleven.

Nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Picture, Actor in a Supporting role, Film Editing, Director and Adapted Screenplay. it won 4 Oscars while not winning Best Picture which went to Gladiator. also Soderbergh was nominated 2 times that year, also for Erin Brokovich.

ok so wow this clearly is in the top 3 best movies of 2000. the movie is about Drug war and Drug transport between USA and MEXICO and all the people either involved or uses it. it has an ensemble cast and many characters that follow mainly 3 different story arcs. the illegal drug trade in this movie is being showed by the perspective of its different people like a user, a trafficker, a politician and an enforcer. these stories goes on at the same time edited together but the characters never meet.

Steven Soderbergh is a good director, i love his work but still his few movies got horrible reviews from critics but this got the best of his career. he directed this movie with such brilliance that you just have to praise his work. what he did with this movie is terrific. it lets us think for ourselves while not being very preachy, which i don't mind but many people do. he clearly was the best director of that year. i read he operated the Camera himself, you will see the shacky camera technique used here which makes it more realistic. good cinematography but there is a thing, some color tints have been used for the people to be able to differentiate between different story arcs.

i can talk alot about the best thing of this movie which is its Editing, it is stunningly sharply and excellently Edited. this is the actually the best edited movie i have ever seen, it reminds me of last year's The Social Network which again was one of the best edited movies. great adapted screenplay, excellently written its like reading. very nice pace not fast or slow. plot was powerful enough to make you sit through the long running time story is great and is very well written.

talking about the acting performances, there is just one actor i will like to discuss and that is the wonderful Benicio Del Toro who got his well deserved Oscar for it. he played this part so much well. he was Javier. the mysterious and haunting performance that slowly and deeply makes us feel there is a human in every human, he is the slowly and quitely awakening moral figure of this movie. great performance. he stole the show here. Michael Douglas as the politician was really good he is appoint to look for the drug trafficking while his own daughter use to. so he is fighting it and with his own family. the last scenes of him, he did a fantastic job. Don Cheadle was really good too. Catherine Zeta Jones is overrated, i liked her in Chicago but she ain't my favorite. she just did a but justice to her character. i liked performances of this stellar ensemble.

i loved the documentary feel of this movie. with so much story arcs, it still is easily understandable and greatly effective and absorbing. one of the best movies of its kind and one of the best of the decade.