Trade
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: September 28, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
6
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Trade unflinchingly sheds light on a heinous crime. Yes, it's tough to sit through. But don't let that keep you away. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Though it's ostensibly a thriller, Trade constantly works against the conventions of its genre in a rather audacious way -- finding, for instance, surprising moments of humanity in even the most monstrous of its villains. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Trade works fairly well as a thriller ticking down to Adriana's auction. It's less assured when it strains for some buddy picture chemistry between Ramos and Kline. Though both actors are fine, with Ramos' performance being reminiscent of some of Diego Luna's English-language roles, the attempts at humor to ease the tension between Jorge and Ray and some of the speechifying are out of tune with the rest of the film. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
As a movie, Trade is so-so, but as an exposé of how the new globalized industry of sex trafficking really works, it's a disquieting, eye-opening bulletin. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The story's incredible coincidences, lazy cynicism and easy ironies recast a real-life horror story as easy-to-dismiss melodrama, complete with sequential "happy" endings. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Trade comes off like TV-movie sensationalism, sidetracked by distracting backstories and hard-to-swallow plot twists. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Trade's wake-up call needs to be heeded, but its missteps detract from its devastating message. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
An eagerly prurient dip into the sex-trafficking trough, Trade teeters between earnest exposé and salacious melodrama. Minus the film’s near-visible weight of conscience, success in the second category would have been virtually guaranteed. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
With a movie of this sort, the viewer expects to undergo something grueling and disturbing. Trade's inability to deliver that sort of visceral experience makes it unworthy of anyone's hard-earned dollars. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
But improbable situations, heavy reliance on coincidence and an improbable climax nearly tip the film into TV-movie territory. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
It points a determined finger (a middle finger, almost) at law enforcement, which cannot or will not recognize kidnapping victims in our midst, especially if they are undocumented and brown-skinned. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The story of the victims on the road is harrowing, but the tale of the kind cop and the teenager with an attitude is a string of big brother clichés.
42
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Trade is a pulpy Hollywood-style melodrama disguised as a harrowing message movie about Important Social Issues. It labors under the delusion that it's this year's revelatory, eye-opening Maria Full Of Grace, when it's little more than a B-movie with an overwrought conscience. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Human trafficking is an awful societal issue, and Trade happens to be an awful movie about human trafficking. Read full review
33
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
You end up with a movie that takes that real problem and makes it feel like an exploitation contrivance. Read full review
30
VarietyRobert Koehler
Little more than a slipshod, trashy, sometimes exploitative thriller. Read full review
30
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
It's pure exploitation--the kind of movie after which you need a long, hot shower. German director Marco Kreuzpaintner's movie looks like "Traffic" and "Syriana"--clearly his role models--but is little more than our generation's version of 1979's "Hardcore." Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
Trade is an earnest attempt to dramatize the network of Internet sex "tunnels." Unfortunately, the film's horrific and important subject matter is distilled into a lackluster lump of generic buddy-movie/road-picture components. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
By introducing silly elements into a serious endeavor, the filmmakers undercut their own movie. In the end, we're watching a somewhat exploitative movie about exploitation. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Kline gives an interesting performance playing against type, but with its action plotting and sensationalistic scenes of women being brutalized, the movie often seems to be exploiting as much as illuminating the problem. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Anything that holds our interest can be entertaining, in a way, but the movie seems to have an unwholesome determination to show us the victims being terrified and threatened. When I left the screening, I just didn't feel right. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen Johnson
Trade is a total misfire, a strange attempt at making a buddy movie featuring a morose Kevin Kline and a 17-year-old Mexican boy looking for his kidnapped sister. Read full review
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