| Trade |
Promotional movie poster for the film |
| Directed by |
Marco Kreuzpaintner |
| Produced by |
Roland Emmerich
Rosilyn Heller
|
| Written by |
Peter Landesman
(story based on his article)
Jose Rivera
(story & screenplay) |
| Starring |
Kevin Kline
Cesar Ramos
Paulina Gaitan
Alicja Bachleda-Curuś |
| Music by |
Jacabo Lieberman |
| Cinematography |
Daniel Gottschalk |
| Distributed by |
Lions Gate Films
Centropolis Entertainment |
| Release date(s) |
September 28, 2007 (USA) |
| Running time |
119 mins. |
| Country |
USA |
| Language |
English |
| Budget |
$12,000,000 (estimated) |
| All Movie Guide profile |
| IMDb profile |
Trade is a 2007 film produced by Roland
Emmerich and Rosilyn Heller, directed by Marco
Kreuzpaintner and starring Kevin Kline. The film premiered January 23, 2007 at the
2007 Sundance Film Festival and opened in limited release on September 28, 2007. It is based on Peter Landesman's article "The Girls Next Door" about sex slaves, which was featured as the cover story in the January 24, 2004 issue of The
New York Times Magazine.
Synopsis
In a poor family in Mexico City, Adriana (Paulina Gaitan)
celebrates her 13th birthday, and is happy about the bicycle her 17-year-old brother Jorge (Cesar
Ramos) gives her.
At the same time, Veronica (Alicja Bachleda), a young woman from Poland, arrives at the airport, where she is picked up by a group who promised to take her to Los Angeles, but instead she is kidnapped and raped by the leader of the gang.
Against her mothers order, Adriana sneaks out to ride her new bike. When she notices a car following her, she tries to get
away, but is captured and taken to the place where Veronica, several Latin American women
and a little Thai boy are also kept.
When Jorge, who makes his living robbing tourists, hears about his sister's kidnapping, he is furious. He finds out that the
kidnappers are Russian gangsters who sell their victims as sex slaves trough a connection in
New Jersey. While he asks people if they have seen his sister, he sees her among the other
victims as they are hurried into a van by the kidnappers. He manages to follow the van to Juárez, but then loses its track.
When Jorge finally finds the house where the victims were kept, they are already gone. A car with US license plates arrives.
While the driver (Kevin Kline) looks through the house, Jorge manages to hide in the trunk
of the car. This way, he passes the border to the USA, but then is found by the driver, who turns out to be a policeman. At first
he does not believe Jorge's story and wants to have him deported back to Mexico, but slowly they become friends. We learn that
the policeman's name is Ray. He was in Juárez to search for his daughter, who was also taken by the criminals.
The kidnappers try to smuggle their victims into the US, but the group is caught by the US border police. 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.
Jorge and Ray travel to New Jersey, from where an internet auction will be held to sell Ariana to the highest bidder. On the way Jorge
recognizes the little boy, who has been sold to an elderly man. Ray frees the boy and forces the man to tell the password of the
internet site of the auction.
Adriana is forced to have oral sex with a customer in a field; the gang members tell the customer that he cannot have
intercourse with her, because at the auction she has to be sold as a virgin. At a stop, Adriana and Veronica manage to escape.
Veronica phones her parents in Poland to warn them, but learns that her little son has already been taken by the criminal
organization. She is in a shock, and 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 female 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 does not fit in their strategy against a larger
criminal organization the gang is part of. Ray, assisted by Jorge, participates in the auction and "buys" the girl, to free her.
Ray visits the house where she is kept, bringing the money. However, he has to prove that he is not a cop by having sex with her
in a room in the house. He does not do that, of course, but then the kidnapper comes in to check on them. Adriana reminds him of
what Veronica said before she died, and he cooperates and tells his female boss that the intercourse did take place. When they
leave, Jorge arrives and attacks the man, and the police arrives to arrest the two kidnappers and free several children they find
in the house. The money Ray brought is returned to him. He gives it to Jorge, and recommends that he stays out of trouble back in
Mexico. Jorge puts the money secretly back into Ray's car when they say goodbye. Jorge and Adriana are flown to Mexico. There
Jorge finds the leader of the kidnappers and kills him.
The film ends by showing the man's little son, who's just lost his father.
Cast
- Kevin Kline...Ray
- Cesar Ramos...Jorge
- Alicja Bachleda-Curuś...Veronica
- Paulina Gaitan...Adriana
- Kathleen Gati...Irina Silayev
- Pavel Lychnikoff...Vadim Youchenko
- Anthony Crivelle...Detective Henderson
- Linda Emond...Patty Sheridan
- Zack Ward...Alex Green
- Kate del Castillo...Laura
- Leland Pascual...Thai Boy
Controversy
In the first half of 2004 Daniel Radosh had a public dispute with journalist Peter
Landesman, who wrote the article "The Girls Next Door" on which the film is based: he challenged the facts of the
article.[1] Landesman threatened legal action against
Radosh. A series of articles about the dispute by Jack Shafer in Slate focused on the article's accuracy and the legal rights and responsibilities of blogs.[2]
Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics. As of September 30, 2007 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 20% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 44 reviews.[3] On Metacritic, the film had an average
score of 44 out of 100, based on 18 reviews.[4]
Box office performance
The film opened in limited release 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.[5]
References
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
