aliceboy Review of Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking (2005)

Tonight, on a very special 'Saved by an ICE Agent'...

[2/10 · 14 June 2006]

I have to comment on this piece of unmitigated rubbish if only because there are three pages of reviews praising it for MUCH more than it is. My wife and I watched this over the past two nights (it just aired here in Sweden) mainly because it sounded interesting, but also because so many people had so much good to say about it, as well as it having a decent cast with Sorvino, Sutherland and Carlyle. The subject matter is something that demands greater attention, especially among American audiences who tend to be mislead so often by a napping media. The manner in which the creators dealt with the stories -- interweaving them in an effort to portray the global nature of the dilemma -- would probably have served the concept well...in better hands. Additionally, I have to assume that the 'reviewers' who so enjoyed this miniseries are mainly accustomed to watching Lifetime films rather than actual films, because nearly everything about this was wrong! The script was WEAK beyond bearing, with characters of less density than onion skin and dialogue cribbed from the lowest rung of cop-drama movie-making. And the cast? Well, personally, I don't expect much of Sorvino. She's been good in her place, but I don't think of her as a great actress by any stretch and she was fairly miscast in this role. Sutherland I expect better from, but he was clearly only in this for the paycheque and I could almost feel his embarrassment at spouting lines like, 'You're a loose cannon' to his not-at-all-out-of-control subordinate of only a few weeks (presumably -- time is hard to gauge in this flick). And Robert Carlyle (who has taken me into many a bad movie by now) was well over the brink of cartoon super-villainy this time, and with an accent that lapsed in and out of Russian pretty regularly. Beyond these unfulfilled expectations, there were the demands that were placed on my suspension of belief. For example, are we really meant to believe that cellphone reception is SO good in back-alley brothels in the Phillippines that a mother could hear the pervert drooling over her 12-year-old daughter while his phone is UNDER A PILLOW and she's OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE?! And would any mother in her right mind hear this situation and think the sensible thing to do would be to scream into the phone, immediately jeopardizing her daughter's safety, AND then not think at all about the likelihood she's just signed her kid's death sentence? And that's just ONE scene! I won't even go into mum then recognising the guy's voice later off the videotape her child's rights advocate friend made...with the difference between him whispering in one situation and yelling in another, both times for only a few words. But at least we can take comfort in knowing that human trafficking is all handled by one mastermind who, if we could just shoot him MANY times...and then shoot him again...would singlehandedly cause the collapse of the industry. Okay, end of rant and end of 'spoilers.' This movie was such a bunch of garbage. The creators should be ashamed of themselves, the actors should be embarrassed and Lifetime should be lambasted for taking a serious issue and turning it into a program so sappy and contemptible it's not even worthy of Hallmark Theatre.