Reviewed by Helen Bolton
Stars Alicja Bachleda-Curus, Cesar Ramos, Kevin Kline, Marco Perez, Paulina Gaitan, Linda Edmond, Zack Ward, Kate del Castillo, Tim Reid, Pavel Lychnikoff
Written by Jose Rivera based on a feature by Peter Landesman
Certification UK 15 | US R
Runtime 119 minutes
Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner
You can tell Christmas is coming because it’s a week of sweet and fuzzy viewing. Dean Spanley, for example. The reissues of White Christmas and It’s A Wonderful Life. The kid-friendly Inkheart. And Trade, a drama about abductions and paedophilia.
Kreuzpaintner’s film is hugely worthy and depressingly relevant and yes, there’s a certain irony in releasing it now. There will, no doubt, be serious types desperately looking for an alternative to the warm and fuzzy, so the timing of the release is understandable. However, it’s doubtful that such serious types will learn anything new from the painfully earnest, sledgehammer-subtle generalities on display.
Based (very loosely) on a New York Times Magazine article, Trade follows the abduction of a young girl Adriana (Gaitan), by paedophile network, from Mexico to New Jersey, and the ensuing cross-border chase, by her brother (Ramos) and a helpful, similarly troubled Texas policeman (Kline).
It is, of course, bleak and gritty: how could it not be? But the clichés — lingering slow-motion shots of abductees, the mournful music — leave you thinking of the (many) times similar stories have been told to greater effect.
• Official Site
• Trade at IMDb