There are three story lines, two of which are helpfully color coded so we can follow the jumps among them. One stars Benicio del Toro as a mildly corrupt Mexican cop who nonetheless wants to stop the flow of drugs through his jurisdiction. The second stars Michael Douglas as the federal drug czar designate whose daughter is -- ready for the irony? -- a junkie. The third features Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglas as a soccer mom who makes the transition to drug lord so fast it's a marvel she doesn't get whiplash, while DEA agents Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman try to protect a witness whose testimony will put her husband in jail.
The movie wants to make sure that we realize the futility of the "drug war" the U.S. is so earnestly fighting, so it features plenty of proselytizing dialogue (yet it's also pro-enforcement enough that Orrin Hatch makes a cameo). Drug-dealer-turned-witness Miguel Ferrer contemptuously tells agents Cheadle and Guzman, "You guys remind me of those Japanese soldiers left behind on islands in World War II. Your government surrendered a long time ago." Or Guzman, as he and Cheadle listen in on Zeta-Jones' conversations: "I dream about this.... Catching top people... white people." Message received, Steven Soderbergh.
Poor Cheadle and Guzman end up looking like the most incompetent witness protectors ever, thanks to patently unbelievable slip-ups that endanger their witness's life for the sake of advancing the plot. Likewise, Douglas' crack-whore daughter is just too perfect: a straight-A student with a yearbook's worth of extracurricular activities -- she reads to blind people, for chrissakes! -- who nevertheless finds time to be a bored rich kid who experiments with drugs. Douglas' character, too, is ridiculous. He's supposed to be the next drug czar of the country, yet he asks someone, "Who has my job in Mexico?" You would think he would have taken the time at some point during his appointment process to, oh, I don't know, research drug issues a bit. Who does he think he is -- George W. Bush? And when his daughter flees a rehab clinic, instead of calling in the police, Douglas goes looking for her himself. Which I interpreted as either: (1) he's an idiot or (2) his reputation is more important to him than his daughter.
Douglas is perfectly cast in this role as a self-righteous jackass who thinks he knows everything but in reality is clueless. I'm not sure that that's how the role was meant to be played, but that's Douglas for you. Overall, the acting is excellent. Cheadle and Guzman turn in their usual stellar and enjoyable supporting performances. Del Toro is also very good.
With such wonderful actors to work with, it's a shame Soderbergh couldn't do any better than this. His jumpy editing and energetic camerawork (he shot this movie himself) just seem frenetic and tiring here, and the color coding of the different story lines seemed to me to be a lazy and heavy-handed way of telling people which story they were in. I'll still wait with bated breath for his next movie -- The Limey and Out of Sight grant him a lot of grace -- but I'm disappointed in this one.
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