Review of Trade (2007) by Dawdlingpoet — 24 Nov 2021

This is obviously a movie that is quite uncomfortable to watch. Its gritty and features some disturbing scenes, including a rape scene, so be aware of that. To be honest, there isn't a great amount of action in the movie, its a fairly (frustratingly) slow movie as far as the plot is concerned and it really highlights the horrendous sex trafficking industry, which is clearly highlighted in the movie as being a global trade. The movie, I feel, was made to make people aware of what goes on seemingly behind closed doors - it was quite shocking to see where the house in New Jersey where the trafficked women ultimately ended up at, was situated - it being located in the middle of a remarkably ordinary, possibly middle class street, not in some completely run down ramshackle shanty town type dump. What worked well in this movie, I felt, were the characters. Of course as far as the trafficked women were concerned (or more the actresses that portray them), they had a very daunting task, to effectively represent the many thousands of people that end up in the same position as their characters. In the movie, Jorge and Ray are the sort of supporting roles or characters but they are both very good characters I feel - Jorge for his compassion and clear love of his sister, his determination to track her down and ultimately for retribution against those who sold her off, Cesar Ramos does give a great performance as Jorge and Ray is a very interesting character as an insurance fraud officer who it turns out as he opens up to Jorge, has also been touched by the human trafficking trade and it turns out, was on a similar quest as Jorge, although his story is, while in some ways similar to his, in other ways its different but it was definitely interesting to see him open up to Jorge, to see how they interacted and so on.

Thinking about it, it seems to me that some of the most frustrating elements in the story were deliberately included to be symbolic, primarily to symbolise/highlight how hidden this horrendous trade is, like to say that we don't wish to acknowledge that such things actually go on. Its really quite uncomfortable, upsetting almost, to see at different points in the movie, the trafficked women being out in the open, with there being a chance for them to escape and yet somehow that tends to elude them, one scene inparticular comes to mind whereby Adriana and another of the girls (I get the names muddled, I think it might have been Veronika?) ends up near a large crowd of Americans watching a big parade with police officers nearby, yet the crowd have their backs turned to the girls and still things don't work out the way that you really want it to - I wondered how realistic this was, this and another scene near the start of the movie whereby the guys that hold the girls hostage The difference between this movie and, say Man on Fire, is that this movie has less action and is really more about making you think about what goes on literally behind our backs. The movie ends with some statistics displayed across the screen to again bring home how much of an epidemic I suppose, it is, although I noticed that it didn't really seem to clarify whether the numbers stated were annual figures or monthly figures or whatever.

There is also a sad irony to one of the last scenes in this movie, whereby its almost as if things have gone full circle as Jorge ends up back in Mexico and recognises somehow who is involved in the industry and full of rage he goes after him - the reaction afterwards of someone who clearly wouldn't understand the significance of whats happened, is both sad and somewhat touching.

No this isn't an 'entertaining' movie, its not particularly easy to watch at points but then it really shouldn't be and given its remit, I think it does a pretty good job. The characters are brought to life, it highlights something that some people undoubtedly would rather not acknowledge even exists and it represents both the mislaid hope and optimism by those young girls who end up in the trade as well as showing in one scene, a rare moment of hesitation from one of the men after being offered the chance to 'do the right thing' - which made me wonder if all the people who were paid to transport the 'human goods' were as bad as you think - had they been pushed into doing what they do? ehhh thats probably way naive of me to wonder, I don't know - I don't remember if that man was the same one that raped one of the other girls but it did make you wonder about motive and so on.