Рабство (2007) Online

"Trade" is an incredible film on many levels. The acting is superb by both the kids, Jorge (Cesar Ramos) and Adriana (Paulina Gaitan), as well as Kevin Kline. The cinematography was incredibly well thought out, and added to the depth of the message of the film. The film is successful in showing the raw dichotomy of the problems of suburbia-America and the horrifying crime that claims the second highest yield of money out of illegal activities just behind drugs.

Yes, this film is disturbing. It unyieldingly shows the gruesome truth of this business. Yes, it draws tears, as many flowed down my own face during these few hours of watching. But I must say that the truth and the tears stirred up within me a desire for change. A desire for justice. Is that not what true film is meant to be about? To bring forth revelation of self discovery, desires, dreams. To cause the viewer to step away from the film a changed person. This is exactly what "Trade" did for me.

I read multiple reviews about the movie "Trade" last night after viewing the film for myself. I discovered comments like, "hard to find it entertaining" and "playing up the terrorizing of the women detracted from the film."

Trade is not a film to entertain. The emotion evoked from this film was designed to have a purpose. The purpose was the change the viewer's perspective out of our cookie cutter American world view, into the grisly truth of sex trafficking that occurs around the world, as well as on our doorstep.

The viewer is invited by this disturbing film to not to be satisfied with ignorance, but to light the fire within them to want to make a difference.

I attended a screening of "Trade" at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. All week, films had been relatively disappointing. And then this powerful work came along.

It probably is sufficient to say that its subject is child trafficking, in this case, from Mexico to the US. Audiences will recognize Kevin Kline. The other leads are a 13 year-old girl (Paulina Gaitan) and her 17 year-old brother (Cesar Ramos). The film rests largely on the shoulders of these two innocents, and it's on the basis of their performances, even more than the subject matter, that I consider this a must-see film.

Check out this pedigree. "Trade" was written by Jose Rivera (who wrote "The Motorcycle Diaries"). It is based on a New York Times Magazine article. It was originally supposed to be directed by Roland Emmerich (who wrote, directed, and produced "The Day After Tomorrow"). But Emmerich had a conflict, so he ended up producing it along with Rosilyn Heller (who produced "American Heart," a favorite of mine starring Jeff Bridges and Edward Furlong). In turn Marco Kreutzpaintner was hired to direct, a German filmmaker who had a connection to Emmerich through another producer. It was a fortuitous set of circumstances. It's a $12 million indie backed by German funds, Emmerich's own pockets, and Lions Gate, who will be distributing it.

This is quite a moving film and, although it's easy to argue the case, it does not exploit the kids itself in its effort to expose the horrors of child exploitation. While it has some Hollywood moments thrown in for commercial appeal, it's still as compelling as any film I've seen recently. The acting is frighteningly real. A good part of the film is a bit of a road movie where Kline and the boy bond -- he needs a male role model, Kline's life on the road is a lonely existence, you know the drill. Kline's relationship with the boy reminded me of his pairing with Hayden Christensen in "Life as a House." He's good at it, and it's a casting coup that helps put the icing on the cake. The other part of the film focuses on the harsh reality of child trafficking and follows several victims through their ordeals. But Kreutzpaintner's narrative never loses sight of its heartbreaking subject matter.

Director Kreutzpaintner and producer Heller were there for a Q&A. I asked about the casting. He said the boy and girl were found during auditions in Mexico City. He was just the second one they saw. They kept looking, but eventually came back to him. He had never acted before. The girl had done a bit before, but not much. What an auspicious debut. These are two to watch.

There are many "oh my God" moments. It ultimately is a "message" film in that it exposes the horrors of child trafficking, but it's also made for commercial appeal and should resonate with the larger audience. It's hard to pull off this kind of film and make it work. How does one entertain without hitting the viewer with a sledgehammer? It's a delicate balance, and this one weighs in perfectly.

This film was very powerful, deeply moving and excellently humanized the underground sex slave trade it portrayed. Both my girlfriend and I were near tears watching it. Truly remarkable.

The acting is nothing short of incredible, I really felt for everyone involved from Adriana's helpless brown eyes, to Jorge's honorable vigilance and and Kevin Kline's tempered patience.

The worst part of seeing this film was realizing that every day people get away with this kind of thing and the real victim's stories will never be told.

Warning for parents, some of the scenes are pretty difficult to sit through.

Based on an article written by Peter Landesman, who also wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Jose Rivera ('The Motorcycle Diaries'), TRADE literally forces us to experience the cruel, vicious international market for sex slaves. It is brutally captured on film by director Marco Kreuzpaintner ('Summer Storm') in a manner that spares nothing to unveil the atrocities created by the many people form all countries who ply this trade. It is a tough film to watch, but it is also an important film to see: the public MUST be made aware of this criminal activity that robs the lives of children and adults around the globe.

The setting is Mexico City and in the poor sector lives a fatherless family supported by the oldest son Jorge (Cesar Ramos) whose 'occupation' is petty crime that allows him to bring in money for his mother and his beloved sister Adriana (Paulina Gaitan). We see the abduction of a beautiful young Polish girl Weronica (Alicja Bachleda-Curus) in the Russian sector of the city. Soon after Adriana, trying out her newest bicycle gift from Jorge, is likewise abducted. The girls (and boys) are kept in filthy apartments awaiting border crossings into the US where they will be shipped to New Jersey for sale after being advertised for auction on the Internet. Jorge discovers the absence of his sister, traces her to the Russian sector where he sees the filth in which the victims are kept, but where he also encounters a Texas policeman Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline) who is continuing his years long search for his daughter. The two 'meet' and join in the chase for the lost girls. And it is the manner in which Jorge and Ray gradually become friends and the clever way in which they cooperate that forms the rest of the story.

Yes, the film is overlong and borders a bit too closely on soap opera techniques, but the acting is so committed and the story is news so important that any flaw in the film can be forgiven because it opens the door to a crime that is all too unfamiliar to most citizens. It is a true story and therein lies the terror. It should be seen. Grady Harp

This movie...is not a feel good movie. It doesn't give you the warm-fuzzy's. As a matter of fact, this movie made me realize just how sick and demented humanity can really and truly be.

Right off the bat, we're introduced to Jorge and his younger sister Adriana, it's her 13th birthday. Jorge gets her a new bike, much to his mother's chagrin. She decides to take it for a spin one day, and unfortunately finds herself in captivity.

Adriana is thrown into this downward spiraling world of sick sick sick people. The only solace she finds is in a much older fellow captive named Veronica, a Polish girl. Their only common ground is that they both speak a small bit of English. Veronica treats Adriana with a sister-like love, and defends her honor and sticks up for her if, and when at all possible.

Jorge, meanwhile, is left alone, distraught, and at a loss. He finds aide in a detective from Texas named Ray(played brilliantly by Kline), whom he finds curiously investigating one of the holding areas that Adriana was being detained. Together, they use what resources Ray has to save Adriana from inevitable slavery and hopefully put an end to whatever system was being run out of the United States.

This is not a movie for young children or even older ones at that. Rape and child molestation is rampant. If you are queasy from watching that kind of human waste, then consider yourself normal, and you may not want to watch this. I, felt the need to watch it, it truly opened my eyes in a way that earlier releases on Juarez, Mexico and other Mexican border towns just didn't. Think of it as similar to Schindler's List.

Kevin Kline said it best. (paraphrased in so many words from the bonus features in the DVD) If you're reading the newspaper, and the world's events, god willing that's what they still are, and you read it from cover to cover, and you think "hmmm....I should do something about that." Then perhaps this movie will inspire you.

This film was emotionally jarring to the very core. That being said, this film was fantastic beyond any assumption I had; and I had high expectations going into this. It's moving, it stirs the mind, it makes you THINK. Personally, I think that's important in this day and age.

Mexico City is overrun with crime. So much that driving a bicycle through the street in an impoverished neighbourhood is an invitation for kidnapping (the most shocking observation I had after watching the movie). 13-year old Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) is one such victim, who gets thrown into a van by a gang of Russian sex traffickers. Her brother Jorge (Cesar Ramos), ridden with guilt since it was his birthday present, that got her into trouble, decides to rescue his sister, which entails travelling all the way to New Jersey via stolen cars, illegal border crossing and finally hitching up with Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline), a Texas police officer searching for his out-of-marriage daughter.

Adriana meanwhile undergoes the process of objectification, becoming a commodity for sale to the highest bidder. During her ordeals she befriends a young Polish mother Veronika (Alicja Bachleda), who was conned into coming to Mexico, after which she was kidnapped, raped and prepped for prostitution.

A tough subject matter, which requires finesse to sufficiently sell the problem to the watching public. Only several films have essentially succeeded into presenting the problem with the most brilliant movie being the heart-wrenching "Lilya 4ever" by Lucas Moodyson. A totally different take on the movie was presented in the crisp and innovative action flick "Taken". "Trade" tries to meet the two above movies somewhere midway earnestly portraying a in-your-face reality of sex trafficking, whilst giving it a element of the chase, but with much action (albeit with a hefty chunk of road-buddy movie to go with it). Nonetheless Marco Krezupaintner decides on a by the numbers approach, where he basically presents how sex trade functions in an almost documentary style fashion (which probably would have worked better for the movie). In between this he has hits and misses whilst trying to portray the main characters and their ordeals. All Mexicans (especially Gaitan) do a terrific job in keeping the movie honest, although all the wisecracking Ramos did whilst trying to save his baby sister from forced sex labour seemed extremely out of place. On the other hand Kevin Kline came out extremely bland and uninspiring, ergo he basically functioned as a script tool to somehow get the character of Jorge to New Jersey. Also Veronika (played by Hollywood hopeful Alicja Bachleda) showed an acting range from downright awful to acceptable - surprisingly the more destroyed she was as a women the better she acted. The least said about the Russian actor the better...

Apart from some great opening credits overhead scenes of Mexico City finished off with a plane flying over the slums area the movie mostly features low-key cinematography, probably an attempt to keep the movie as grounded as possible. Hence the camera ventures with the action and its heroes, hardly trying to hide the monstrosities going on in front of it. Subtleties are not to be expected in this movie. The plot however goes in a relatively obvious direction and although it does get its act together somewhere midway the initial kidnappings and rapes seemed way to clichéd to be believable.

On an end note I whole have liked to have seen better closure for the movie. Irrespective of the multiple happy endings the final scene where Jorge issues some well deserved revenged was poorly done, while the loose end of the fate of Veronika's child is a let down and/or missed opportunity.

I had never heard of this movie and just stumbled on to it by accident. The story was very powerful and meaningful. The acting was absolutely awesome, especially by the two major stars playing the parts of brother and sister, more of the younger girl, but that is not to take anything away from the part of her brother Jorge. He was outstanding. Also, the part of Veronica was superb. She made her scenes gripping. Especially one, and you'll know which one I mean just by watching the movie. Your jaw will drop just like mine did and it will stay with you even after the movie. This is a must see. It is in subtitle and English, so it it easy to follow. Oh yeah, Kevin Kline was an excellent surprise.

This was the first time I had ever tears in my eyes in a cinema! This film absolutely blew me away.

Acting, Character development, dialogue and especially the camera-work was just extremely well done. This was a really gripping and very emotional movie, and in my opinion this was the best movie-ending ever, at least the best one I have ever seen.

You should not only watch it because of its important message, but also because its just a brilliant film!

So, the bottom line is, I've never been so moved by a movie and I can only recommend this film to everyone! Go see it!!!

Trade is not really the kind of thrilling crime movie that I was expecting, it's about something I thought I might have heard about quite a lot yet actually never really felt: trafficking children and women from the third world to be sold for forced sex. Trade exposes the whole chain of the business with great genuineness.

For a subject like this it's handy to come up with much more gore and sex to attract some eyeballs, but not with Trade, there is nothing gratuitous here. At several gut-wrenching scenes, at the edge of my seat I longed to see some resistance or retribution, I didn't, but when I sat back and cleared my thought, I knew that was what would happen in the real world. Nevertheless although there are many broken hearts, twisted minds and lost souls in the movie, and even the last scene gave me a groan, I am not left with despair in the end.

Quite a few characters have been developed into some depth, while supported by first-class performance(excellent casting!) this doesn't cause confusion or dilution, but rather delivers me the feeling of the whole big picture. It does feel a bit dragged at the beginning, I guess it is needed to expose all the details of the business chain, the storyline flows naturally and keeps me hooked for 2 hours.

Overall this is a well-made untypical crime film with not so much easy entertainment in it, but if you want something genuine that will linger in your head, go see it and you won't be disappointed.

There's a possibility that filmmaker made a research for this film through reading various articles in the newspaper. "Trade" is uninspired melodrama that seems too afraid to be what it really meant to be. Sex trade industry is an interesting and controversial subject to discuss about, but what we've here is only half-baked, incredibly shallow unfinished project.

Three different stories have interwoven into one film. But the plot begins in Mexico City. Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) is 13-years-old girl who lived in the ghetto with her mother and her brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos). One day, she was kidnapped while she rode a bicycle. In the meantime, Veronika (Alicja Bachleda-Curus) is a polish girl who searching for an opportunity in America. But she was tricked by travel agency and landing in Mexico instead of America. Not soon after landed, she's also kidnapped by the same group of people. Adriana and Veronika are two of a bunch young girls (and boys) who have to across the border led by Manuelo (Marco Pérez) in order to be sold in America.

After his younger sister is missing, Jorge decided to chase a truck that seemed to carry them across the border. Once they reach a city border, he finds Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline), a policeman who came to Mexico with a personal mission. Jorge decided to hide in Ray's car trunk. Once Ray found out about it, they're already across the border. Jorge explained his reason to Ray and somehow Ray seemed to believe him. So they head to New Jersey where the bidding of Jorge's sister will take place and, by that, they have to do any mean necessary to stop it.

At social commentary point-of-view, "Trade" is right on target. It's right thing to explore and condemn the world of sex trade industry. But at the story point-of-view, it's complete failure. There's not a single one of three stories that will left you stunned. The main story about two young siblings is pretty weak and by-the-number melodrama. The major problem is an actor who plays Jorge, his inexperienced acting method sometime cause unintentional funny scenes. Ray's story also rather disappointing, once we've found out the reason he travels all the way to Mexico, it's not strong enough to make us care for his issue. And we can see that the filmmaker tried his best to link the sibling's situation to Ray's personal issue. But in the end, the execution is pretty awkward and feels forced. Even in Veronika's story which she did the most horrify thing that happened in the movie, it felt coming out of nowhere.

The film also falls short in consistency in both visual and character's characterization. In the beginning, they decided to use hyper active kind-of style in camera operating. With hand-held and everything, they seemed to be pretty interesting to look at (especially an opening scene with a memorable Spanish song). But as the story progressed, they changed their style to conventional style, with dolly and crane that was completely opposite to the first half. And there's irritating bad guy who supposed to make us believe that his life lives between gray areas. But somehow, it really didn't matter at all because the filmmaker decided to ignore his story altogether and, by that, makes our journey with this character seemed unnecessary.

The fate of this film fell upon the first paragraph. "Trade" appears to be a great article in the newspaper. But as a film, "Trade" is depressingly joyless drama. It's like every angle of this film suck the life out of the story a little by a little. And what we have left here is only series of beautiful and controversial photographs that barely worth calling themselves as cinema.

In the slums of Mexico City, the small time teenager thief Jorge (Cesar Ramos) gives a bike to his beloved sister Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) on her thirteenth anniversary under the protest of their mother. While riding early in the morning, Adriana is kidnapped by members of an international network of sex traffickers. Meanwhile, the gorgeous Polish single mother Veronika (Alicia Bachleda) arrives in Mexico City with a friend lured with the promise of a work in USA in a model agency by the same criminal gang. While transported to New Jersey, the two girls become friends and Veronika protects Adriana as much as she can. Meanwhile, Jorge desperately seeks his sister in the red light zone of Mexico. He witnesses children and the women being loaded as cargo in a truck and he tracks them trying to save his sister. When he arrives in Juarez, he sees the Texan investigator Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline), who is chasing a missing daughter, in the house where his sister was lodged. He hides himself in the trunk of Ray's car and once in USA, Ray finds him and is convinced to help the boy in his quest.

Human trafficking is a sad reality of the contemporary days and together with drugs and weapons, they form the three greatest illegal worldwide trades. The societies need to give more attention to this profitable slavery of the Twentieth-First Century and consequent use of the victims in sexual tourism and other types of sexual exploitation, creating laws, investigating and punishing these sick and mean criminals. The way the children and the girls are treated like cattle, used and abused by perverts and sent from one man to another, is disgusting. The children and girls are abducted through different means, but in common, they become victims of a powerful international network of sex traffickers. "Trade" is the fourth great movie that I have watched about this sad reality. "Lilja 4-ever" and "Anjos do Sol" are extremely pessimist and realistic, but focused in the life of only one character. "Human Trafficking" gives a big picture how these gangs operate, following the drama of three lead characters. "Trade" is less crude and more Holywoodian, but it is still a very good film. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Desaparecidos" ("Missing")

The plight of innocent victims of human trafficking for sex has moved filmmakers enough to make movies addressing the issue. The last two in recent memory that I've watch are Your Name is Justine, and Lilya-4ever, both which put the spotlight specifically on the characters created, highlighting the abuse they receive and exposing some of the tricks that the conmen exploit in order to target and thereafter control their prey. Given that the viewpoint of the entire unfortunate ordeal from the perspective of the victims have been portrayed, and is easy and turning the same wheel if done again, Trade takes on a more macroscopic look, while still maintaining a finger in a more personalized tale, in order to ramp up the human drama and emotions.

While the other two movies mentioned take place primarily in Europe, Trade highlights a more international network involved in the supply chain, where increasing amounts of money get exchanged for women and children to feed the demand by perverts and paedophiles. While having its premise for the demand set in USA, it goes to show that the unfortunate victims come from all over the world, and suggests the use of Mexico as the proxy to get into the USA illegally, no doubt with the help of corrupted authorities. From then on, it's an established hush-hush protocol of transfers and transactions that take place in the most unseeming of places, and naturally technology comes to play in anonymous bidding on the internet.

Primarily, this story is a race against time, following a young Mexican boy, Jorge (Cesar Raoms), in his chase to rescue his sister Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) as she gets abducted randomly off the streets - being a young child, she is set to obtain record prices should she be auctioned off to be deflowered. While Adriana gets to enter USA through already established methods by the syndicate, Jorge has to rely on his street smarts, and unwittingly gets hooked up with US cop Ray Sheridan, played by Kevin Kline, who assists in Jorge's quest under moral circumstances rather than deporting Jorge straightaway for being a stray.

Like a buddy cop movie, Trade also looks at the unlikely partnership between street delinquent and tough nose cop with the heart of gold, as they try and penetrate the system, while leaving room for some clash of cultures and slightly comedic instances. The unfortunate circumstance of the victims are again getting a shiner in order to be subdued, and of course the weapon of choice, rape. And the movie results in you silently cursing the worst for those involved in the trade, and never sympathizing an iota with them when they receive their dues.

Technical wise, someone should tell the filmmakers that password fields are always asterisk, never in clear text, even the dumbest website programmer won't make that mistake. One of my other peeves here was the decision not to mount the camera on a tripod. While it's not the extreme kind of shaky cam like Cloverfield's, it did bring on some queasiness given the very minor movements, all of the time. I don't see the need for this, and wondered if it's because it might look cool and edgy with the fast cuts and all that the tripod was junked, wrongly.

Based on a New York Times Magazine article published on 25 Jan 2004 written by Peter Landesman, Trade offers to strike a balance between painting a picture of sympathy for the victims and disgust for the perpetrators. Unlike the other movies which has come before, Trade managed to spin a somewhat refreshing look at the worldwide sex slavery problem.

well, a few years ago here in Germany it was a common thing for directors to point out that their main intention is TO ENTERTAIN. it was some kind of excuse for being German, maybe to prevent a mix up with the tradition of new German cinema in the 60s to early 80s, which was not supposed to entertain but to be art in the first place. how primitive it is to draw the line between ART on the good and ENTERTAINMENT on the bad side should be common sense, and Kreuzpaintner did succeed with his relaxed but intense coming out-drama "Sommersturm". but Trade is a perfect example of missing the goal. it tries to mix horrible real-life-drama and "Entertainment" (which was the main intention, as Kreuzpaintner points out in interviews) in order to raise awareness of the topics of human trafficking and forced prostitution and child abuse. but the drama is so clearly designed to evoke suspense that you feel just manipulated, you feel almost more sorry for the poor actors being exploited for ENTERTAINMENT, than you feel sorry for their characters. for example: when the two kidnappers drive over a very high mountain and that one guy gets out to punish Veronica who tried to escape few minutes ago, you just wonder: well, why are they doing it stupidly on the edge of a cliff? so that the camera has a more beautiful view in the background? for one, but mainly because Veronica is about to kill herself surprisingly by jumping into the abyss. on the one hand Kreuzpaintner always tries not to characterize people just black and wide in order to stay "authentic", on the other hand he's constantly bending the storyline in every direction that is needed to have a little more dramatic impact in order to ENTERTAIN, regardless of staying believable or not. You should watch out for Kreuzpainter's new film "Krabat" where he's getting in to the same trap from the other direction. He's trying to prevent suspense to be more authentic and that doesn't work either... I am afraid, that Kreuzpaintner's talent is getting corrupted by his unfitting companions and the pressure of budgets that are too high for a guy who did just a bunch of 3-4 films. He should stick to his roots, grow strong and try again. if you're interested in good films that can be compared to Trade you should watch out for "Lilya 4 ever" concerning the topics and "Dr. Alemán" concerning the storytelling.

The movie is so totally unrealistic that rating it 1* is too high of a rating. I don't recommend wasting time watching garbage. About the only things realistic are that those that are involved in kidnapping young women and children are violent and evil, and that those that sell children for pickup in a residential area within the USA are going to be arrested. And, of course, the emotions shown when a child is kidnapped and when returned are very realistic.

Spoiler Alert: Some of the unrealistic and often near impossible things in the movie involving selling children and young girls are as follows:

1. A young woman forced into a car just outside the Airport in Mexico in view of hundreds both standing, walking, and in cars.

2. A 13 year old girl in Mexico riding a bicycle being chased mid-day through five blocks of with houses and buildings on both sides of the roads and no one else is outside.

3. The kidnapped victims hiding from the police when crossing the border instead of screaming to be rescued.

4. Two teenage kidnapped girls escaping and running through a parade in the USA and then being kidnapped again in view of hundreds of people including the police and no attempt the stop the kidnappers.

5. Contacting law-enforcement in the USA about an internet auction of children and the authorities doing nothing.

6. After placing the winning bid on the internet and meeting at a parking lot to exchange money for the child inside the USA when the buyer and seller are strangers and have not met. No seller would take that risk since the buyer might be the police.

7. Also, then getting into a car with the thug appearing seller to be taken to an unknown place to exchange the money for the girl, knowing that the thug is a kidnapper. I cannot imagine a buyer taking that risk and perhaps being robbed of $32,000 in cash and maybe being killed.

8. And then the buyer being forced to F**k the virgin child before being allow to leave and no prior knowledge of that being a requirement. That is just plain stupid. Most likely the poor buyer would be too frightened to even get it up.

It is not enough to have good intentions in order to make a good movie. I understand the morals, the movie is trying to picture the horrible situation in human trafficking. But the story is very unattractive and characters are so artificial and shallow. Their actions is not logic and true. Don't waste your time watching it. The screen writers might have written it for a short movie. directors should have asked at least one person to review the story and see how boring and unreal and unnecessarily exaggerating it looks like. The movie insults the audience's sense of reality. It is painful to see how they spoiled such an important message. The topic and moral of the story are very important and touching but it is amazing to see how they could make such a bad movie out of it.

Based on Peter Landesman's cover story, the film follows a Texas cop (Kline) and Jorge (Ramos) who are on the trail to save Jorge's sister (Gaitan), a 13-year-old girl from Mexico City who was kidnapped to be sold in the sex-trade. A powerful story, with Kline and Ramos making an interesting duo. The conflict seems to always be easy to overcome, with the two leads never loosing the tail of the kidnappers no matter what the obstacle is. The tragic irony at the end is an eye-roller. The hunt begins to feel far-fetched as the film progresses, and Kline is as dull as usual. The Mexico City setting alone is a plus to this roller-coaster of thrills and yawns.

**½ (out of four)

I'm still in shock at the high ratings this film is getting, but I guess it shouldn't surprise me.

It's awesome for the black-and-white hit-me-over-the-head crowd. All the expected cutaways, shots, and edits are here. Girl abducted...shot of bicycle turned over. Another girl abducted...shot of rose on pavement. Characters who say exactly what you want them to say...all the time. No surprises, suspense, or plot twists need apply. Just a vehicle for the self-righteous to vent their anger. What a bore.

Kevin Kline tries earnestly to float this picture past the point of credibility, but as good as his performance is --- it's the only really believably rendered thing in the picture --- it isn't good enough. The direction and production values are incredibly amateurish. I couldn't figure out why I was basically unmoved with the heinous acts that occur at the start of the picture and finally realized...they were just too dead on. There were no nuances beside what you might find in a substandard TV movie.

This is an important subject and it doesn't deserve the pop culture "Traffic"-style treatment that the drug trade got in THAT overrated mess. But this makes even that look original and interesting by comparison. Look, all movies manipulate your emotions, but this one is almost masturbatory by comparison.

Trade has some very powerful and wrenching moments but there are too many contrivances to make it a truly convincing film. Jorge, the brother, happens to see someone riding his sister's bike and is able to track down his sister's abductors in a teeming Mexico City hours after she is abducted. In the City's chaos ,he loses sight of the truck transporting his sister, stops for a drink, looks out the window of the store, and there it is again. Jorge later hops in the trunk of a car, which by chance, is the car of a cop also looking for a missing child so he has a ride and an expert in his chase. A stop for breakfast in a random diner allows them to happen upon a pervert who happens to have the web site and passwords for the precise sex auction involving the sister. And then the good guys and the bad guys, in their respective vehicles, drive from Texas to New Jersey ( like its a few miles away) in record time to all meet up for the finale. Even the sentimental ending has the sister arriving back in Mexico City with her brother after being saved,stops at the Church where her mother, at the precise time of her arrival, is in church praying for her return. The film obviously exposes the tragedy of sex trafficking in helpless minors and some scenes, like the one where the sister is rented to a pervert in a field are compelling, but the plot did not have to rely so heavily on coincidence and contrivance.

Movie Summary

I recently saw the movie Trade, and I thought this movie was pretty good. It shows people what is happening in the this world today with all the human trafficking. This movie has great actors who made the movie very believable. Jorge ( Cesar Ramos) plays as a young boy who is looking for his sister in Mexico was kidnapped by human traffickers. Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline) plays as a protective cop that is also looking for someone close in Mexico, then stumbles on Ramos and they both gang up to find the young boy's sister. They travel all over the place in Mexico and in America to try to find the young girl named Adriana ( Paulina Gaitán). They found a lot of clues that helped them with their mission of finding the people who kidnapped the young boy's (Cesar Ramos) sister Adriana so they can bring her back home. This movie turns out to be an eye opener into the human trafficking trade. The things I didn't like about the movie was the language. I don't mind the language, because of the young kids they may watch this. The part about this movie that I didn't understand was why didn't the detective, Ray Sheridan finish looking for what he was looking for at the beginning of the movie? Overall that's the two things I didn't like or understand about this movie. The rest of the movie was great. This was probably not one of the best movies I've seen in awhile.

1 Border patrol does not put Polish people back into Mexico! 2 people do not call in Mexico with 4 digits. 3 there is no web page with such info as shown in movie, 4 Iam tired of idiots who don't portray the real world then no one learns of issue of great importance

5 someone does not get kidnapped in front of police and a page,

6 collect calls to Poland do not happen,

7 I have never seen such stupid acting, stupid direction

this movie was a waste of money.

the scenery was great, but there are freeways even in Mexico and freeways in the USA, that are not depicted. I've never seen such a juvenile story line.

Today I went to the mall and in the choices were some terror road movie,a romance and there it was Trade. With a subject that interest me a lot, that is human lives being trade.

When the lights went off and the movie started to roll, I was very critical about what the movie was going to show me, mostly because I've already readed some reviews about it.

When Veronica cames in the story, the movie became a lot more interesting... her character leaves us with almost an urge to know what will going to happen to that fragile creature. Alicja's expressive eyes transport us to inside the movie. She could easily be one of us, or some close relative. As we watch the movie we get to know Veronica's sweet side, in spite was she is going on, she worries about everyone around her, especially with Adriana. Then, we start to feel more than a simple sympathy for Veronica, that's when Alicja steels the scene and give us an amazing performance that remembers a lot Charlize Theron's interpretation.

If I could point someone that would be star of the year, that would be miss Bachleda, not only because of her strong performance, but also because of what this performance brings to a movie that it's so important in these days.

Trade is an excellent, though somewhat ultimately unrealistic movie about the pedophilic sex-trade around the world. Children continuously have horrific atrocities committed upon them, and nothing seems to ever be done about it.

Unfortunately, as has been exposed in many cases, such as that of the infamous pedophile Lawrence King, who held pedophilia parties in the white house for politicians, as well as several nefarious characters in Europe, this goes all the way up to the higher echelons of the "elite" in the U.S and Europe (Consisting mainly of the royal families and businessmen - research the Belgian child sex-rings and how children are left to starve to death in makeshift basement dungeons)

In the movie, one might expect to see low-level child sex-ring thugs transporting them around the world. In real life, this trade is ultimately governed by the extremely wealthy.

Maybe we should reconsider how we treat our own children in America, like how we mutilate them by birth, and then maybe they will be able to effect change when they mature into sexually healthy adults.

I would also like to warn you that videos of girls like the "pre-teens" depicted in this movie, are widely available on file sharing services like Kazaa and "eMule". You are advised to look for yourself. Next time you come across one, you know what it took to make it.

Thank you for reading this, and may God have mercy on our souls.

I saw the movie yesterday and I can say that I was amazed by the performances of Adriana Gaitan and Alicja Bachleda, mostly of the last one.

Alicja plays Veronica, a young girl that is kidnapped, raped, beaten, but somehow find in Adriana a way to keep herself alive now that she feels she has to protect the young girl. Alicja gives to the movie the humanity that is necessary for this kind of plot, at the same time Veronica is fragile and fearful, she's also strong and brave.

Alicja's performance is so strong and that her simply presence in the movie made us wanna watch it. In fact, her death was necessary, but at the same time is hard, because in spite her character wasn't written for being the star, she definitely is.

The high level of Alicja's performance can be seen in many scenes of the movie, but especially in the scene where she is raped when we can feel her helpless and her shame through her hopeless eyes noting with regret that she did the wrong choice.

I watch this film yesterday night with the eye full of tear, still now i can not bear the events what i have seen on that film. it is a remarkable movie I never ever seen in my life time. This movie is fully based on child trafficking. It is not a bearable think.Everyone must have awareness of this child trafficking. This film contains some shocking events which we are not accepted never ever. These kind of sexual abuse spread ed all over the world. Even their mother will also not forgive their, who is involving these kind of activities. Government should aware of this and take actions very cruelly against of them, who is involved these kind of activities, then only we can stop this, otherwise it would continue. We will pray for every of our brothers and sisters.. I can give the rate of this film 8/10..

This movie is based on an article in the NEW YORK times about the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. I read the about this story & the subject matter even though its lurid did interest me.

The things I like about it outweigh the few deficiencies in the story telling. I especially liked the fact that it was not 'hollywoodized', There are no violent explosions,unneeded special effects, no nudity & no overly explicit sex scenes, even the violence is muted. The film concentrates on humans involved.

Kevin Kline is the only well known name in the cast,. The 2 main persons in the cast for me were the kidnapped girl & her older brother does his best to find the sister he loves. The both are first rate, every one else is very believable.

Kevin Kline is as usual first rate.

This is a grim film, with little humour BUT a worthwhile one to see. It is not for children however.

as usual the movie had a very short run in the few theatres it played.

If I was booking this,I would put it in one of the smaller theatres in a few malls in many cities & let word of mouth do the trick

I have said for decades WE NEED A BOOKING CZAR, to get films like this & a few others (Eastern Promises & The Pledge for example) to be seen by the public & not thrown away.

Ratings *** (out of 4) 88 points(out of 100) IMDb 8 (out of 1o)