Trade Movie Review (2007)

photo courtesy of Marco Nagel & Lions Gate Films

We all know that money, sex, and greed are things that many in this world thrive off of. With that said, the movie Trade tells the story of the sex-slave industry, which encompasses the aforementioned elements. Director, Marco Kreuzpaintner (director of “Traffic” and “Man on Fire”) and writer Jose Riveria, successfully merged the real-life, unsettling tragedy of the sex trade industry, while producing a decent dramatic plot. After doing a bit of digging, I found that this film was loosely based on a New York Times Magazine article (“The Girls Next Door”) about the sex trade industry, written by Peter Landesman. The article revealed the fact that young girls from Mexico and elsewhere are smuggled into the U.S. and sold to American pedophiles. What slugs? There was some controversies surrounding the numbers he provided, but no one doubted that the trade exists.


Ok, getting to the movie. Trade focuses on two females, Adriana, a 13-year-old Mexican girl (Paulina Gaitan) and Veronica, a young Polish mother (Alicja Bachleda-Curus), who will be auctioned off like kept knick-knacks on Ebay, in New Jersey; Adriana is literally snatched off the street in broad daylight and Veronica is mislead and lured to Mexico City with the false promises of a work visa in the U.S. and a modeling career. As you watch the journey of these women and the terrors of sex trafficking, we are introduced to Adriana’s sincere, “hot-tempered” brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), who is befriended by a Texas police officer, Ray (Kevin Kline). Knowing the imprisoned would be heading to the U.S. (New Jersey), Jorge trails the captor’s get-away truck, only to lose them in the congested Mexico streets. Pissed at himself, Jorge stumbled upon the stash house where the slaves were kept. At the same time, Ray is searching through the same house for his own reasons, which you will later learn; noticing Ray’s license plate (Texas), Jorge climbs into the trunk of his car, which starts their friendship and gallant rescue of Adriana and others.


In my opinion, the acting in this movie was effective, but mediocre. I can say that this movie is an eye-opening depiction of how the sex trade works globally. From watching various documentaries one would think that this only exists in foreign and third world countries, leaving no notion that the U.S. is linked in, although, we all know that it occurs here in our great nation. Overall, this movie is so-so, but from an educational standpoint, it successfully exposes one of the world’s most monstrous crimes.


GRADE: B-


Check out the movie trailer below. (IE users click here)