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TRADE Send This Review to a Friend
The sex trade in youngsters is a world-wide horror. “Trade,” directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner from a screenplay by Jose Rivera based on Peter Landsman’s New York Times Magazine article, zeroes in on the shocking methods by focusing on an incident that begins in Mexico City with the kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl, Adriana (Paulina Gaitan). Her older brother Jorge (Cesar Ramos) desperately sets out to find her before the worst can happen.
Kevin Kline has a sympathetic role as a cop from Texas who befriends Jorge, and moved by the situation, reluctantly decides to do something about it. The trail leads to New Jersey in suburban surroundings that you wouldn’t think harbored such criminality. But the statistics that the film gives us indicates widespread sex slave activity just about everywhere.
The task is to intercept Adrianna from the dangerous crowd involved before she can be sold to a customer as a young virgin for deflowering. “Trade” is strictly a melodrama, albeit one with heart. It grips one’s attention, although told in rather languid fashion until the suspenseful final rescue push. A Roadside Attractions release.
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