Trafficker, is Larry Smith's ( accomplished cinematographer that previously worked with Stanley Kubrick) debut film as a director, and while watching it's premier a few nights ago, what Larry was able to achieve with such a tight budget and only 25 days to shoot completely surprised me and went above my initial expectations. Though there is of course room for improvement, as there is in any film, Trafficker was both moral and entertaining, following the life of two brothers caught up amiss the drug world.
Despite the sometimes lacking Australian accent and over-exaggerated acting by the rather unexperienced key actors (Guy Ratchanont Suprakob and Jonathan Raggett), this film was not terrible acting wise, but quite decent and at times enthralling, which is what to expect from new bee actors.
In this film, Larry Smith and his crew were able to successfully bring to life several various locations while remaining in the Bangkok, Thailand area. The sets and locations were intriguing and each unique. The lighting throughout the film was expressive and set the atmosphere for many of the scenes, especially that in the Vietnamese bar. It wasn't as red as Only God Forgives (in which he was the DOP), but that's probably as GOOD thing.
However, one of this film's best features is it's exciting and emotional story, inspired by true events. Considering the number of nonsensical big budget films I watched this year with no plot whatsoever, it was gratifying to finally walk into a theatre showing a film with and actual moral and purpose.
This film isn't filled with sex-appeal, hunky men and a happy ending love story, it's a film that addresses real issues, a brotherly love, and the struggle they face in the drug world, but that's not a bad thing. This film is fresh, it's different, and well worth the watch.
Larry Smith was able to make a both purposeful and congenial film out of unexperienced actors, a tight budget and limited schedule, which by my standards isn't easy to achieve. I do recommend watching this film because even though it's not perfect, (then again what is?) compared to the other nonsense released this year, it's well worth it.
