Based on Peter Landesman’s 2004 New York Times Magazine cover story, Trade promised to be a Traffic-like expose on the sinister world where young virginal children are kidnapped and sold as sex slaves.

In the last couple years there have been quite a few fictional films based on non-fiction ideas. Films like Fast Food Nation were adapted into fictional films because a documentary would be hard or impossible to create. The result more times than not does not capture the realism and emotion of the source material. Trade fails as entertainment. It’s slow and boring, worse than a government created documentary.

Jorge sets off on a mission to recover his 13 year old sister Adriana, who was kidnapped by a russian gang to be sold in America to pedophiles. Kevin Kline plays a Private Investigator who helps Jorge find his sister. Kline has been trying to make a transition from comic to dramatic actor for a few years now. His performance in Life As a House offered just the right mix of seriousness and laughs. In Trade, Kline is scarily unbelievable.

Disclaimer: I decided to leave the movie before the ending, not because it was THAT bad (it was only mediocrity bad). It was instead because I wanted to get into another film which began shortly after. At Sundance parties you often run into the fake LA people. Those conversations are sometimes the worest. They are always looking over your shoulder for someone more important to talk to. And in this moment I became one of those LA people and decided to ditch Trade to talk to Eagle vs. Shark instead.

/Film Rating: 5 out of 10

Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Screenwriter: Jose Rivera
Starring: Kevin Kline, Cesar Ramos Ceballos, Alicja Bachleda-Curus, Cesar Ramos, Paulina Gaitan