It's a gripping, uncompromising story of the kidnapping, brutalizing, smuggling, and sale of young women and boys, from Mexico into the United States. It's hard to tear yourself away from the screen for fear you'll miss what degradation comes next for the two kidnapees from Mexico City that the story follows -- Alicja Bachleda, a strikingly beautiful young woman, and Paulina Gaitan, a scared thirteen-year-old girl. The latter is the sister of Cesar Ramos, a tough urban teenager. Ramos hooks up with Kevin Kline, whose own daughter disappeared, possibly kidnapped, years ago.
The kidnappers' idea is to get the two girls to New Jersey in time for an internet auction at which sex slaves are sold to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, along the highways, the girls are rented out at isolated spots to pervs who use them for as long as it takes to boil an egg. Going rate -- eighty dollars. Gaitan, however, is a virgin and they want to keep her that way because she'll bring a higher price in the Garden State. She is rented out too, but I guess remains what high schoolers call a technical virgin.
Kline, a cop, and the vengeful Ramos are in pursuit, not knowing exactly what they're looking for until the contrived ending. The two begin by hating each other but wind up fast friends, naturally. The narrative demands it. The acting is marvelous on the part of just about all the principles. Kevin Kline's performance may be the weakest. He seems almost too tired to be bothered with the role, but maybe resignation is what the role calls for.
Best performance -- envelope, please -- the madam who keeps half a dozen young girls locked away in the basement. She's always smiling but, my God, she looks evil. Her high cheekbones and her eyes at their alarming dihedral lend her a resemblance to Morticia Adams, but more -- reptilian. And she delivers delightfully, demanding that Kline, in order to prove he's not a cop, consummate his perverse lust for the thirteen-year old on the spot -- "And I want to see blood on the sheets". I can't find her among the credits -- maybe it's Kathleen Gati but I'm not at all sure.
There is no nudity and no simulated intercourse, only the suggestion of them. The story itself is powerful enough to carry the message. But, then, what IS the message? The epilogue claims definitively that the CIA estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 people are kidnapped and smuggled into the United States, like these two girls. But as far as I can determine, the CIA has made no such estimate. The best the CIA has been able to come up with is 45,000 to 50,000, and not all of them are kidnapped for sexual purposes. The fact is that it's extremely difficult to make a good guess because the data just aren't there.
In the 1930s they made innumerable movies about "social problems" like "gangsterism." J. Edgar Hoover warned all of us to be on the lookout for spreading gangsterism in 1950. Or the problem might be reefers or gambling. The drama in this film is tumultuous but maybe what's called for is a dispassionate and reasoned approach. What this film does -- and does very well -- is contribute to the "mean world hypothesis" in which we believe we must live surrounded by scoundrels, enemies, murderers, and sex traffickers. The world isn't really "mean". It's just indifferent.
The kidnappers' idea is to get the two girls to New Jersey in time for an internet auction at which sex slaves are sold to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, along the highways, the girls are rented out at isolated spots to pervs who use them for as long as it takes to boil an egg. Going rate -- eighty dollars. Gaitan, however, is a virgin and they want to keep her that way because she'll bring a higher price in the Garden State. She is rented out too, but I guess remains what high schoolers call a technical virgin.
Kline, a cop, and the vengeful Ramos are in pursuit, not knowing exactly what they're looking for until the contrived ending. The two begin by hating each other but wind up fast friends, naturally. The narrative demands it. The acting is marvelous on the part of just about all the principles. Kevin Kline's performance may be the weakest. He seems almost too tired to be bothered with the role, but maybe resignation is what the role calls for.
Best performance -- envelope, please -- the madam who keeps half a dozen young girls locked away in the basement. She's always smiling but, my God, she looks evil. Her high cheekbones and her eyes at their alarming dihedral lend her a resemblance to Morticia Adams, but more -- reptilian. And she delivers delightfully, demanding that Kline, in order to prove he's not a cop, consummate his perverse lust for the thirteen-year old on the spot -- "And I want to see blood on the sheets". I can't find her among the credits -- maybe it's Kathleen Gati but I'm not at all sure.
There is no nudity and no simulated intercourse, only the suggestion of them. The story itself is powerful enough to carry the message. But, then, what IS the message? The epilogue claims definitively that the CIA estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 people are kidnapped and smuggled into the United States, like these two girls. But as far as I can determine, the CIA has made no such estimate. The best the CIA has been able to come up with is 45,000 to 50,000, and not all of them are kidnapped for sexual purposes. The fact is that it's extremely difficult to make a good guess because the data just aren't there.
In the 1930s they made innumerable movies about "social problems" like "gangsterism." J. Edgar Hoover warned all of us to be on the lookout for spreading gangsterism in 1950. Or the problem might be reefers or gambling. The drama in this film is tumultuous but maybe what's called for is a dispassionate and reasoned approach. What this film does -- and does very well -- is contribute to the "mean world hypothesis" in which we believe we must live surrounded by scoundrels, enemies, murderers, and sex traffickers. The world isn't really "mean". It's just indifferent.