''Trade'' is a 2007

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Marco Kreuzpaintner Marco Johann Kreuzpaintner (born 11 March 1977) is a German film director, executive producer and screenwriter. Career In 1999, he began his career in the role of German dubbing assistant for the Stanley Kubrick film ''Eyes Wide Shut''. In t ...

and starring Kevin Kline. It was produced by

Roland Emmerich Roland Emmerich (; born 10 November 1955) is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for his science fiction and disaster films and has been called a "master of disaster" within the industry. His films, most of wh ...

and Rosilyn Heller. The film premiered January 23, 2007 at the

2007 Sundance Film Festival The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007, in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was '' Chica ...

and opened in

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on September 28, 2007. It is based on

Peter Landesman Peter Landesman (born 3 January 1965) is an American screenwriter, film director, producer, journalist, novelist and painter. He wrote a number of cover stories for ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''The New Yorker'', ''The Atlantic Monthly'' an ...

's article "The Girls Next Door" about

sex slaves Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is an attachment of any ownership right over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. This includes forced labor, reducing a person to a s ...

, which was featured as the cover story in the January 24, 2004 issue of ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...

''.

Plot

The film follows two people who are kidnapped by an international sexual slavery gang in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. Adriana (Gaitán), a 13-year-old local girl, is captured while riding her bike. Veronica (Bachleda), a young woman from Poland, is kidnapped upon arriving at the airport. She soon realizes that the whole trip was orchestrated by the gang. They are held along with some Latin American women and a young Thai boy. Adriana's 17-year-old brother, Jorge, learns that his sister was kidnapped. He asks his friends to help him find her, but they balk when they learn how powerful the gang is. Jorge finds out that the kidnappers "sell" their victims as sex slaves through a connection in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. While searching for Adriana, he sees her among the other victims as they are hurried into a van by the kidnappers. He steals his friends' car and manages to follow the van to Juárez, but then loses track of it. Adriana, Veronica and the Thai boy are smuggled into the US with the help of corrupt Mexican policemen, but the group is caught by the US Border Patrol. The gang members keep the kidnapped people from telling the police that they were kidnapped by threatening to harm their families. The kidnappers and victims are sent back to Mexico, after which they sneak into the US again. When Jorge finds the house in Juárez where the victims were kept, they are already gone. An American, Ray (Kline), also arrives to investigate the house. Jorge hides in the trunk of his car, revealing himself once they have crossed back into Texas. Ray decides to help Jorge to rescue his sister. Jorge learns that Ray was in Juárez to search for his estranged daughter, who may have also been a victim of the gang. They travel to New Jersey, where the victims are being taken and where an

internet auction An online auction (also electronic auction, e-auction, virtual auction, or eAuction) is an auction held over the internet and accessed by internet connected devices. Similar to in-person auctions, online auctions come in a variety of types, with d ...

will be held to sell them to the highest bidder. At a rest-stop diner with Ray, Jorge recognizes the young boy. Ray frees him and forces the man who had purchased him to give him access to the auction. At a stop, Adriana and Veronica manage to escape. Veronica sees a policeman and tells Adriana to tell him what is happening, while Veronica herself phones her parents in Poland to tell them, but learns that her little son has already been taken by the criminal organization. Adriana fails to tell the policeman, and during the phone call Adriana and Veronica are recaptured by the kidnappers. At another stop, Veronica commits suicide by jumping from a cliff, telling the kidnapper that he will pay for his sins. The kidnapper arrives with Adriana at a house where his boss keeps more victims. She scolds him for losing Veronica. Ray and Jorge ask the New Jersey police to free Adriana, but they refuse; it would disrupt their strategy against the gang's larger criminal organization. Ray, assisted by Jorge, then participates in the auction and buys the girl for $32,000, to free her. Ray brings the money to the house, but asks the gang boss a personal question, which makes her suspicious. He then has to prove that he is not a cop by having sex with Adriana before leaving. Instead, Ray and Adriana convince the male kidnapper to let them leave. The police, checking on the house after all, arrest the two kidnappers and free several children they find in the basement. The siblings are flown back to Mexico City, where Adriana is joyfully reunited with her mother, and Jorge seeks revenge.

Cast

* Kevin Kline as Ray Sheridan, a fraud investigator who helps Jorge search for his sister when he finds him. *Cesar Ramos as Jorge, the trouble making 17-year-old brother of Adriana. *

Alicja Bachleda Alicja is a Polish language given name that is equivalent to Alice in English. Notable people with the name include: *Alicja Bachleda-Curuś (born 1983), Polish actress and singer *Alicja Boratyn (born 1992), Polish singer *Alicja Dorabialska (189 ...

as Veronica, a Polish tourist who is kidnapped. *

Paulina Gaitán Paulina Gaitán Ruíz (born February 19, 1992) is a Mexican actress. She is best known throughout Mexican television and movies. She is more recently known for her role in the popular Netflix series, '' Narcos'', as the devoted young wife of Co ...

as Adriana, Jorge's younger sister who is also kidnapped. *Marco Pérez as Manuelo *

Linda Emond Linda may refer to: As a name * Linda (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters so named) * Linda (singer) (born 1977), stage name of Svetlana Geiman, a Russian singer * Anita Linda (born Alice Lake ...

as Patty Sheridan *

Zack Ward Zacharias Ward (born August 31, 1970) is a Canadian actor. Early life Ward was born on August 31, 1970, in Toronto, Ontario, the son of actress Pam Hyatt. Career He is best known for his character Dave Scovil (Titus's stoner half-brother) on the ...

as Alex Green *

Kate del Castillo Kate del Castillo Negrete Trillo () is a Mexican-American actress. At the age of 19, del Castillo became known for her lead role in the telenovela '' Muchachitas'' for Televisa in 1991. Afterwards, she continued her career in film and televisio ...

as Laura *

Tim Reid Timothy Lee Reid (born December 19, 1944) is an American actor, comedian and film director best known for his roles in prime time American television programs, such as Venus Flytrap on ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' (1978–82), Marcel "Downtown" Brown ...

as Hank Jefferson *

Pasha D. Lychnikoff Pavel Dmitriyevich Lychnikov ( rus, Павел Дмитриевич Лычников) is a Russian-American television, voice, film and theatre actor, who lives and works in the United States. Early life and education Lychnikoff was born in Mos ...

as Vadim Youchenko *Natalia Traven as Lupe *Leland Pascual as Thai Boy, a ten-year-old boy who is also kidnapped. He is the only boy that was kidnapped.

Critical reception

''Trade'' received mixed to negative reviews from critics. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a 34% approval rating, based on 73 reviews with an

average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 5/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "With an exploitative style that seems more suited for TV shows like '' CSI'', ''Trade''s message about the reality of child exploitation is easily lost". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film had an average score of 42 out of 100, based on 22 reviews indicating "mixed or average reviews". Robert Koehler of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' said that "With all of the earmarks of being a serious and thoughtful drama written and based on Peter Landesman's investigative work on the international sex slave trade network, it comes as something of a shock to discover that the final film is little more than a exploitative thriller". Jeannette Catsoulis of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called ''Trade'' " eagerly prurient dip into the sex-trafficking trough", adding that " tteeters between earnest exposé and salacious melodrama, but criticizing film's "near-visible weight of conscience", which if not for it, would have guaranteed a success in the second category.

Box office performance

The film opened in

in the United States and Canada on September 28, 2007 and grossed an estimated $114,000 in 90 theaters, an average of $1,266 per theater.

References

External links