TRADE

It would be perverse to consider this film entertainment, but there can't be any harm in having one's consciousness raised.

Like American Violet and Felon, Trade is an exceedingly upsetting movie plucked right from the headlines.  You may feel a world away from the events unfolding onscreen, but it's impossible to get around the fact that this sort of thing happens every day.  In fact, if you fall through the right set of cracks, it could easily happen to you.
 
Human trafficking is a topic seldom discussed at the dinner table, but Trade does its best to create awareness about an issue that is too often swept under the rug.  As unflinching as the film is, it creates a human connection from the get-go.  The movie begins in Mexico, at the birthday party of a thirteen year old girl named Adriana (Paulina Gaitan).  She's given a bicycle by her older and more worldly brother, but her mother isn't happy.  Why is he giving her the means to put herself in danger?  She forbids the girl to ride her new bike, and of course, that only makes it more tempting.
 
Unsurprisingly, Adriana defies her mothers orders and sneaks out for a bike ride early one morning.  It's not long before a fancy black car begins to follow her, and within moments, Adriana realizes that something is horribly wrong.  The car isn't passing.  The car doesn't want to pass.  The car is after her.  Just a few blocks from home, Adriana is kidnapped and taken away to be sold into slavery.
 
When Adriana's brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), discovers what has happened, he immediately springs into action.  Not only does he feel responsible, but he's the only one with the wherewithal to track her down.  He learns that she was probably taken by the Russians to be sold in the United States...most likely somewhere near the airport in New Jersey.  Using only this vague information, he manages to track his sister down.

Now begins the difficult task of getting Adriana away away from her captors. After seeing a reasonably safe-looking white man poking around at the house where Adriana was held captive,  Jorge sneaks into the man's trunk and crosses the border.  He isn't thrilled to learn that this man, Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline), is a cop, but it turns out he's in exactly the right hands.  Not only has Ray spent years searching for a daughter who was lost to human trafficking, he's willing to work outside the system to help Jorge find his sister.
 
What follows is a nerve-wracking cross-country journey as Ray and Jorge attempt to keep pace with Adriana and her captors.  The movie cuts between their progress and Adriana's ordeal, sparing us from very little.  A young Polish mother has been kidnapped as well, tricked into giving up all her identification and family information, and now, raped, beaten, on her way to being sold into sexual slavery.  She and Adriana instantly befriend one another and attempt to survive the experience in one piece.
 
The stakes get higher and higher as the girls approach New Jersey, and it becomes clear that Ray and Jorge are going to have to go to extraordinary measures if they hope to save Adriana.  I can't reveal much more without ruining the ending, but let me just say that the final act is so intense that it just about makes your heart stop.  Heavy handed?  Yes.  Compelling?  Absolutely.  It would be perverse to consider this film entertainment, but there can't be any harm in having one's consciousness raised.  Someday someone is going to have to take a stand against human trafficking and a legal system that chooses to look the other way.