FLIMSY EXPOSÉ FAILS

THE women get all the juicy action in Traffik, a cheesy, by-thenumbers action melodrama that takes itself seriously enough to pose as an exposé of sex trafficking.

An attractive cast led by a vibrant, all-in Paula Patton, and spiffy visuals courtesy of renowned cinematographer

Dante Spinotti make the sleaze and predictable plotting go down a bit easier, but there’s still no disguising the project’s lurid underpinnings.

Patton is Brea, a young woman whose expectations of a romantic weekend with her lover, John (Omar Epps), are turned upsidedown by a bunch of sleazebags who invite themselves to their remote house in the woods.

After John and Brea, who are black, have an altercation with some scuzzy white bikers at a gas station, you know it’s only a matter of time until the bad ol’ boys turn up to give the city folk a very bad time indeed.

While Patton almost singlehandedly makes you want to take the film a little more seriously, it’s impossible to do so, so fundamentally based is it in stock characters, hackneyed suspense clichés and predictable notes.

Basically, this is both a female empowerment yarn and a victimisation tale wrapped up in a less than convincing package. – Hollywood Reporter