"Trade" | Short takes

Ugly truths and unbelievability

"Trade," with Kevin Kline,

Cesar Ramos, Paulina Gaitan, Alicja Bachleda, Marco Pérez. Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner, from a screenplay by Jose Rivera. 119 minutes. Rated R for disturbing sexual material involving minors, violence including a rape, language and some drug content. Metro, Uptown.

Based on an investigative report that appeared in The New York Times Magazine, "Trade" has telegraphed the most sordid examples of the international child sex trade into a small, somewhat exploitative thriller. It's far from being in the style of docudrama. In fact, much of it plays as melodrama with storylines arcing across the movie into a tidy, but somewhat unsatisfying, ending.

A picturesque opening sequence in Mexico City sets up the crisp look of the film, but it soon turns ugly as 13-year-old Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) is abducted off the street by a gang of Russian thugs. Her older brother Jorge (Cesar Ramos) just happens to witness this and sets out on a single-minded quest to find her — even if it takes him to suburban New Jersey.

Somehow, a mysterious federal agent named Ray (Kevin Kline) enters the scene to help Jorge. Concurrent with this is a plot thread about other children from other parts of the world who are smuggled into the U.S. Their horrible journeys end up in a variety of awful fates at the hands of ruthless Russian, Mexican and American scoundrels.

"Trade" moves at a brisk pace and has some genuinely compelling (and probably truthful) sequences depicting this terrible business. But Kevin Kline is hard to believe as the Texas lawman who wraps things up in a neat little bundle.

— Ted Fry, Special to The Seattle Times