rating: 2
Ill be honest here: I
really wanted to like Trade of Innocents. Human trafficking is one of the largest criminal enterprises, and it poses a global problem. And this film, directed by Christopher Bessette, aims to raise some much-needed awareness and action, including links in the credits, promotional materials, and the films own website to
Justice-Generation, which has information on resources for advocacy and action to prevent and combat trafficking. I admire Bessettes attempts to use film as a way to get the message out, which makes it all the harder to write this review, given that this movie is just very clunky. Alex Becker (Dermont Mulroney) is a former American soldier and a human trafficking investigator operating in Cambodia. His organization is working to bring down a slaver named Duke (Trieu Tran), who is in the process of securing very young virgins for foreign pedophiles. One such pedophile is an American tourist, Malcolm Eddrey (John Billingsley). As Alex has to deal with conflicts from a new police chief, Pakkadey (Sahajak Boonthanakit), his wife Claire (Mira Sorvino) is working as a volunteer in a shelter for rescued girls. The film gets far too melodramatic for its own good, and it actually serves to weaken the movie in many places. After spotting Eddrey in a restaurant and failing to chase him down, Alexs frustration leads him to berate a bootleg DVD peddler. Was the peddler selling child pornography? Not that I could see, its just that he was part of crime in Cambodia and so Alex starts shouting at him, talking about how people like him are complicit in the sex trade. It was supposed to be a moment where Alexs frustrations at his lack of progress are displayed, but its just such a ridiculous, eye-rolling scene, I almost laughed. Especially when the restaurant scene culminates with Eddrey, future victim by his side, asks the band to play the song Puppy Love. I mean, come on, really?
Claire unfortunately has lots of moments of forced melodrama. And its in her scenes where the movie becomes overly preachy and starts to detract from telling a good story. I understand this is a subject very close to Sorvino, in 2009 she was named a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador to Combat Human Trafficking, but the moments when her performance is supposed to move us just feel overwrought. The Beckers have suffered a personal tragedy thats led to their current lives, and they feel extremely guilty about it. I know this because the movie, and Claire especially, never miss a chance to relentlessly hammer on this point. Another major problem is how the film depicts Cambodia. Dont bother looking for any Cambodian talent in this movie, because there isnt any. The Southeast Asian characters are portrayed by Thai and Vietnamese actors. The movie was filmed in Thailand doubling as Cambodia, and even in scenes where characters are supposedly speaking Khmer, theyre actually speaking Thai or Vietnamese. Its disrespectful to Cambodians and it damages the movies credibility. And its all the more bizarre that they would choose to film a movie about Cambodia in Thailand, when Cambodia is probably not much more expensive to film in. Even if it were an issue of cost or permissions, why not just set the movie in Thailand? Theyve also got issues with human trafficking, so its not a stretch. The movie doesnt seem to know what it really wants to be. At the beginning, it seems like it will be more of a serious drama about the lives of human trafficking agents, but then it turns into a thriller, and then it ends in an action set piece at Angkor Wat (or rather, a fake Angkor Wat). You never really get a sense of the urgency of this movie, and the characters just act so stupid. For instance, why would you try to kidnap a young girl at a major tourist attraction, especially when you already know where she lives?
There are some good parts, though. Trans performance as Duke is suitably menacing and creepy, and the way Billingsleys Eddrey speaks so casually about what sort of girl he wants, as if hes ordering a product, is incredibly disconcerting. But these effective villains are ultimately wasted without any suitably convincing heroes to oppose them. Again, I admire the attempt with this movie, but somewhere along the line, they forgot that in order to make an effective movie, the story and the acting has really got to be of a better quality than preachy melodrama. Otherwise, the message is weakened, and thats sadly whats happened here. I feel Bessette would have been better served making a documentary about his experiences working with rescued girls.
Trade of Innocents is now available for home release and on most video streaming services.