The film is about a Texas policeman who forced his daughter into sexual slavery. This policeman tries to unite with a young Mexican man to find the boy's sister, 13-year-old Adriana. It appears that both are trying to reach a special purpose and that the latter is trying to return his daughter, who has been kidnapped by members of an international network of sex traffickers.
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.
Guardian
December 12, 2008
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.
A brutal, shattering story of child trafficking that is intended to deliver a sobering punch about the global human trafficking trade, Marco Kreutzpaintner's powerful drama is in fact based on investigative reports in the New York Times.
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.
Times (UK)
December 12, 2008
This cockeyed odd-couple road movie is well-intentioned, but it comes perilously close to feeding off the crimes it condemns.
Such difficult subject matter requires a harder-edged delivery, but hopefully this accessible drama will therefore get its message across to a wider audience.
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.
