37
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinLos Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinAn effective weekend-from-hell thriller with a vital message, a terrific lead performance by Paula Patton and some unexpectedly dimensional storytelling from writer-director Deon Taylor ("Meet the Blacks").
- 55TheWrapTodd GilchristTheWrapTodd GilchristIt’s kind of hard to know where to begin with what’s wrong in Traffik, a movie where every scene takes about twice as long as it feels like it should, and the characters far too often make an escalating series of implausible and/or stupid decisions.
- 42The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerThe A.V. ClubJesse HassengerTrying to figure it out makes Traffik weirdly compelling, but nowhere near good.
- 40VarietyAndrew BarkerVarietyAndrew BarkerNoble intentions are derailed by deeply confused execution in writer-director Deon Taylor’s Traffik, which attempts to marry cheap genre thrills with an unflinching depiction of the horrors of international sex trafficking, only to cheapen the latter and cast a grimy pall over the former.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAn 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 than they would have otherwise, but there's still no disguising the project's fundamentally lurid underpinnings.
- 40Paste MagazineOktay Ege KozakPaste MagazineOktay Ege KozakThere doesn’t seem to be any insidious motivation behind writer/director Deon Taylor’s vision for his film, no purposeful undermining of the real impact of sex slavery by coating it in a veneer similar to what can modestly be described as a highly eroticized, run-off-the-mill basic cable home invasion thriller. It’s misguided, not nefarious.
- 38Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenDeon Taylor seems uncomfortable with the escalating relentlessness of a siege film, eventually splitting Traffik off into a variety of other tangents and genres, diluting the potent subtext at the film's center.
- 38Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreTraffik isn’t a very good thriller, and if you aren’t two or three steps ahead of it, much of the time, you need more practice.
- 30Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAustin ChronicleSteve DavisNoble intentions, ignoble results.
- 12RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonRogerEbert.comOdie HendersonTraffik begins with that classic cinematic lie “inspired by true events” and ends with statistics for women who have been victims of human trafficking. Between these two bookends is a steaming pile of exploitative horse manure masquerading as a feature concerned with the sexual enslavement of women.