RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Check out the new RT Community
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / Trade
Trade

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Visit Official Site External Icon
  • Bookmark and Share

Trade (2007)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
28 %
Tomatometer

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted: 65

Fresh: 18

Rotten:47

Average Rating: 4.7/10

Consensus: With an exploitative style that seems more suited for TV shows like CSI, Trade's message about the reality of child exploitation is easily lost.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for disturbing sexual material involving minors, violence including a rape, language and some drug content

Runtime: 2 hrs

Genre: Kidnapping And Missing Persons, Thriller, Exploitation, , Crime/Conspiracy, Rape, Theatrical Release, Crime

Theatrical Release:Sep 28, 2007 Limited

Box Office: $118,086

Synopsis: At once soft-hearted and hard-edged, TRADE provides a compassionate look at an ugly world. In Mexico City, men kidnap13-year-old Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) with the intent of selling her virginity to... At once soft-hearted and hard-edged, TRADE provides a compassionate look at an ugly world. In Mexico City, men kidnap13-year-old Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) with the intent of selling her virginity to the highest bidder. Young Polish beauty Veronica (Alicja Bachleda) is held captive by the same men, and they threaten her young son across the ocean. As the criminals mistreat their victims, Veronica is Adriana's only solace as she is taken farther and farther away from home. Meanwhile, Adriana's older brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), begins to track his sister across the Mexican border into Texas and through the United States. On his mission, he runs into a Texas cop named Ray (Kevin Kline) who agrees to help him without ever really saying why. TRADE isn't escapist fare: it's a socially conscious film that doesn't flinch from the most painful of details about the sex trade. There's rape, pedophilia, and suicide, and the film doesn't look away or glance over the horrors. This is German director Marco Kreuzpainter's first film on these shores, but he works like an assured veteran. After working for decades in the film industry, Kline is often most highly praised for his work in comedies such as DAVE and A FISH CALLED WANDA, but he's quite adept in this serious drama. Young actors Ramos and Gaitan are making their major feature debut with TRADE, but they both communicate the fear and frustration of their characters with remarkable skill. [More]

Starring: Kevin Kline, Cesar Ramos, Alicja Bachleda, Paulina Gaitan

Starring: Kevin Kline, Cesar Ramos, Alicja Bachleda, Paulina Gaitan, Kate Del Castillo, Anthony Crivello, Zack Ward

Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner

Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Screenwriter: Jose Rivera
Story: Peter Landesman, Jose Rivera
Producer: Roland Emmerich, Roslyn Heller
Composer: Jacobo Lieberman, Leonardo Heiblum
Studio: Lions Gate Films

[See More Credits]

  • Trailers
  • Pictures
  • Trailer
    >
1 of 1

See More Movie Trailers & Pictures

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

Jan 29, 2008

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Trade

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
Arrange By: Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

If only the whole matched the power and potency of the details. Masquerades as a searing exposé, but turns out to be a lurid and overwrought account.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/12/08
Ian Freer
Empire Magazine

As cinema, ‘Trade’ is flawed: the script is functional and the dry characters are hemmed in by the machinations of an unremarkable plot.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
12/12/08
Tom Huddlestone
Time Out

Such difficult subject matter requires a harder-edged delivery, but hopefully this accessible drama will therefore get its message across to a wider audience.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
12/12/08
Jim Hall
Channel 4 Film

This cockeyed odd-couple road movie is well-intentioned, but it comes perilously close to feeding off the crimes it condemns.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
12/12/08
James Christopher
Times [UK]

Is it possible to agree with what a film is saying while disliking the way it says it? Trade leaves no arm untwisted and no message unrammed.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
12/12/08
Xan Brooks
Guardian [UK]

Kline and the talented Gaitan do their best to engage on a human level, but ending with various sobering stats about the global sex trade only underlines the film’s woefully misplaced dramatic emphasis.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
12/12/08
Elliott Noble
Sky Movies

Jose Rivera's script plays uneasily, as do some of the directorial flourishes: the shots of rose stems and caged birds are galumphingly emphatic at moments that need no underlining.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
12/12/08
Independent

With terrific performances and strong direction throughout, this hard-hitting thriller delivers a powerful wake-up call.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
12/12/08
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

This involving film is weakened by a script that tries to create a formulaic thriller out of an important subject matter.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment 1 Comment
12/12/08
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Trade is a dreadfully hollow film, empty of everything except pretension and self-importance posing as art.

Full Review Source: Colorado Springs Gazette | comment Comment
02/28/08
Brandon Fibbs
Colorado Springs Gazette

Just misses making its urgent point, which was surely the purpose of this emotionally stirring, troubling film, by turning up the excessively convoluted melodrama, and turning its eyes away from the sociopolitical issues that sex slavery thrives on.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
01/20/08
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
01/18/08
Mark Holcomb
Time Out New York

A documentary about sex trafficking might have been more powerful. Dramatizing the subject in this fashion, with a race-against-time road trip, breathless online bidding and a couple of different happy endings, simply cheapens it.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
12/03/07
Christy Lemire
Associated Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Yes, a conventional documentary about sex slavery would probably be more illuminating. It would also be more unbearable.

Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI) | comment Comment
10/26/07
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

Trade has cojones for trying to lay the kind of political guilt trip it does on us with its sham aesthetics and lurid telenovela-writ-large storyline.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
10/19/07
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

What ultimately tips the scales is its determination to avoid sentimentality.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
10/06/07
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Tremendously sincere but at times brutal drama.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
10/06/07
Marrit Ingman
Austin Chronicle

The filmmaker tries to keep the energy up and the audience engaged by incorporating stylistic touches from the Michael Bay 101 crib sheet, whirling the camera around characters in crisis and lacing scenes with hack guitar rock.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
10/05/07
Lisa Rose
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

incredible -- in the literal, non-complimentary sense...

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
10/05/07
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review

Grim, hard to take, and nightmare-producing, Trade is not for the faint of heart.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
10/03/07
Rex Reed
New York Observer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
all

Latest News for Trade

September 27, 2007: Critical Consensus: Game Plan Fumbles, Kingdom is Overthrown, Feast Is Semi-Appetizing, Elah Worth a Visit
This week at the movies we have parenting quarterbacks (The Game Plan, starring The Rock), FBI agents (The Kingdom, starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner), lonely citizens... More...

September 20, 2007: Critical Consensus: Chuck is No Good, Sydney White is No Fairy Tale, Eastern Exceeds Promises
This week at the movies, we've got cursed couples (Good Luck Chuck, starring Dane Cook and Jessica Alba), a collegiate Snow White (Sydney White, starring Amanda Bynes), the... More...

September 02, 2007: Just misses making its urgent point, which was surely the purpose of this emotionally stirring, troubling film, by turning up the excessively convoluted melodrama, and turning its eyes away from the sociopolitical issues that sex slavery thrives on. Opens in new window
More...

September 02, 2007: Trade diverts its enormously disturbing subject matter into its own apolitical comfort zone, where the reality is clear but resolutions clouded over. Opens in new window
More...

See More Topics...

Related Forums for Trade

Click here to be the first to post a message on this forum.

See All

More DVDs

Close
Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
—
The Code
23%
23%
Confessions of a Shopa…
39%
39%
Inkheart
80%
80%
Gran Torino
28%
28%
Tyler Perry's Madea Go…

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
84%
84%
Two Lovers
28%
28%
12 Rounds
04%
04%
Street Fighter: The Le…
23%
23%
Jonas Brothers - The C…

More New Releases…

RT On Current TV

What’s Hot On RT

Exclusive Concept Art

Exclusive Concept Art

Images from Blood: The Last Vampire and more

50 States, 50 Movies

50 States, 50 Movies

This July 4th, take a cinematic road trip!

Johnny Depp's Best Movies

Johnny Depp's Best...

The finest work from Public Enemies' star.

Fred Durst's Faves

Fred Durst's Faves

The singer/director talks movies and more.

Other News

Close
  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Weekly Ketchup: Universal Takes on Asteroids
86
  • Brandon Routh Talks Superman's Future Source: Moviehole
86
  • Sony's Amy Pascal Explains Moneyball Balk Source: Los Angeles Times
6
  • Three Theaters Getting Harry Potter in IMAX Opening Day Source: Collider.com
18
  • Weekly Ketchup: Adam Sandler joins The Zookeeper, David Fincher joins Facebook
72
  • Zak Penn Talks The Avengers Source: Sci Fi Wire
20
  • Watchmen Director's Cut Headed to Theaters Source: Collider.com
32
  • Lorenzo di Bonaventura Talks G.I. Joe, Beverly Hills Cop 4, More Source: Collider.com
14
  • (Teaser) Trailer Bulletin: The Last Airbender Source: MTV
61
  • Johnny Depp Talks Alice, Pirates 4, Dark Shadows Source: Collider.com
12
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Critics Consensus: Solid Public Enemies Doesn't Quite Bring The Noise
104
  • Five Favorite Films with Fred Durst
87
  • Total Recall: Johnny Depp's Best Movies
84
  • RoboGeisha: 2009's Most Insane Trailer?
79
  • Weekly Ketchup: Universal Takes on Asteroids
43
  • RT on DVD: Street Fighter, Transmorphers 2, and Uwe Boll's Tunnel Rats!
36
  • Academy Invites Tyler Perry, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen to Join Oscar Ranks
28
  • Box Office Guru Preview: Dinosaurs and Gangsters Spark Fireworks
23
  • Karl Malden: 1912-2009
17
  • Blood: The Last Vampire -- Exclusive Concept Art and Artist Profile
11
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • RT Interview: Director Carlos Cuaron on Rudo and Cursi
0
  • RT Interview: Tony Scott on The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
10
  • Cannes 2009: RT Interview - Sally Hawkins on We Want Sex
2
  • RT Interview: Tilda Swinton on Julia
5
  • Hollywood Legend Debbie Reynolds Reflects On her Life in Showbiz
10
  • Exclusive: McG Talks Terminator Salvation
24
  • Georgia Groome - Fresh Talent on RT
5
  • RT Interview: Reading The Reader with Stephen Daldry
11
  • RT Interview: Oscar Nominee Melissa Leo
7
  • Carey Mulligan - Fresh Talent on RT
7
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • Trade at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Trade at IGN
  • Trade at AskMen

Fresh Links

Featured
Appreciating Michael Jackson
Appreciating Michael Jackson External Link

TIME music critic Josh Tyrangiel remembers - and appreciates - the high peak of Michael Jackson's career in the early '80s.

10 Best Picture Noms?
10 Best Picture Noms? External Link

With the Best Picture Oscar noms now 10 deep, BuzzSugar looks at 10 films that should have made the cut.

Successful Sci-Fi Sequels
Successful Sci-Fi Sequels External Link

Sequels never used to be as good as the original, but now they can be even better. Can Transformers 2 follow suit?

Films That Time Forgot
Films That Time Forgot External Link

The AV Club's Zack Handlen explores why Snowbeast has been dismissed and forgotten.

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.