Trade of Innocents

source: Trade of Innocents

Critic reviews Trashed this movie as a social justice advert to appeal to the sympathies of the viewers. Well good then, at least someone is tackling the heavily ignored topic of child trafficking. To those who aren't paying attention to the story and focus on its truth, then shame on you. You are part of the problem and a reason this continues and that this film is no longer available.

There is an old proverb that says a man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men. And in the case of filmmaking, brings him before great audiences. By the same token, the moviegoing audiences who 'receive' the gift of an important film are also favored. TRADE OF INNOCENTS sublimely lives up to the proverb. Room has been made for the accomplished Christopher Bessette, his skillful cast and crew, and for the gift of his film, TRADE OF INNOCENTS. Recognized afresh in 2018 and pitted against 2018 blockbusters, TOI receives a well deserved and newly awarded revival. Originally released in 2012 to multiple awards (2 Best Picture, 1 Best Drama, and 1 Best Director), TRADE OF INNOCENTS lives up to the definition of a true sleeper success today. Now six years laters, filmmaker and writer Christopher Bessette again wins BEST DIRECTOR and Mira Sorvino wins BEST ACTRESS at the 2018 Canadian International Faith & Family Film Festival. Christopher Bessette's talent for storytelling and directing presents itself in this edgy 2012 film. The mature PG-13 audience is granted an unsettling dramatic story the deals with child sex trafficking in a southeast Asian location and highlights reformations desperately needed in our society. The main characters, married couple Claire and Alex, have devoted themselves to helping the cause of saving innocent children who have been traded for sex. Still tender over the death of their own child, Alex, a human trafficking investigator, and Claire, a volunteer in a shelter for girls rescued out of the sex trade, are passionately committed despite the dangerous exploits that unfold. Do not overlook TRADE OF INNOCENTS. A gem of a film guaranteed to entertain and provoke you. Truly a gift from the consummate filmmaker, writer, director CHRISTOPHER BESSETTE.

.....it carries a strong message. The entire script is good except for a handful of glaring things left out or in need of changing. First the musical score is horrendous and it does have an effect on setting certain scenes. The acting is not great at all. In my opinion they needed to push more of the point/theme that the governmental corruption is so engrained it is as much as breathing over there...including the sad fact that the biggest and I mean BIGGEST problem is the parents and grandparents willingly selling them into this. Reality - The families know exactly what they children, babies, toddlers are going to be doing, they don't care they sell them. If the child comes back home after they have been at a safe house for schooling and counseling - the family tells them to go back to the brothel to make the family more money - since they were already there and know how it is. They also missed the point on the sick men that buy these children. It is not only white western men. They missed the mark on showing how rich Asian men buy them as well as Muslim men and AA men... This story needs to be told, but it really needed to be done differently and be more inclusive of the men that buy them and families that do not care a t all.

So many films on child and human trafficking are coming out, it's hard to keep up. Trade Of Innocents is a well meaning film on the subject. It just isn't the best. It concerns a grieving couple (Sorvino and Mulroney), trying to come to terms with the death of their daughter. They support a organization, helping to rescue kids who are being pimped out, to foreign pedophiles, as such a middle aged guy (a creepy John Bilingsley- Croc 3). He's the stereotypical pedophile, where they're are so many instances in Trade Of Innocents, that are clichéd, it's tense building up to finale, kind of strengthens it, livens it, and redeems it, but by this time, it's really too late. I did find bits of the film, were just weak and linear. I like Dermot Mulroney, and it was good to see him here, as I haven't seen much of him nowadays, but one feels he was miscast, where obviously Sorvino, outside of acting, has taken a personal and vested interest in this cruel trade, very much mirroring her character in Human Trafficking, where here, she's not as strong a character as she was in the latter, but shows the same initiative. The Aussie who's part of the anti trafficking organization, was a different angle, but desperate one, as was stereotypical like how his fate turned out and going undercover to buy some girls, as you see in many HT documentaries, like Dateline whatever, where too a nice bike chase, added some other tension, besides the norm of scenes you see in these slavery dramas. The film does throw in some smart tricks, as in Mulroney's character, like surreptitiously taking a photo of child and pedo in a bar, but really doesn't change the fact that this is just a more weaker film as to say Human Trafficking, Trade or Lilet Never happened. Yet still the film shows a likable initiative in a not so bad drama, for people who like this topic, a manifold of dramas probe.

The movie is excellent for this time and season to increase awareness of just how far someone will go to hide and fuel their lustful desires. We need more movies like this showing what is happening to the children...not to mention the destruction of our adults. For this reason I can overlook petty details to expose the truth in order to bring justice.

What a great film; poignant story, beautifully crafted, and a powerful message. Christopher Bessette and Philip Hurn make a dynamic team. This is a powerful treatment of a sensitive topic. Christopher's keen insight gave him the ability to thoroughly uncover a complicated topic. His recognition from the Breckenridge Festival of Film and The Canadian International Faith and Family Film Festival (CIFF) as best director testify to Christopher's consummate skills. He is able to draw out the subtle nuances of the characters that can speak louder than words. The veracity in the treatment of character, scenes, and all aspect of the story is impeccable. Don't let the ability of this film to express the delicate shadings of meaning, feelings, and value escape you if you are used to some films that are more superficial. Congratulations to Christopher and Mira Sorvino on the most recent of a growing list of awards garnered by The Trade of Innocents. I highly recommend this film.

I've seen some of the other reviews on this movie and am saddened that people seem more concerned about quality acting, than the point that children are being sold as sex-slaves, right now, today! It shows how numb the world has become to horror. The heart of this movie will touch yours, I hope. But this film also reminds us of the importance of art, the power of media, and will stir you up to share, like, tweet, post, whatever else you can do to a) raise awareness of the heinous crime, and b) help prevent it happening. If it saves ONE little girl, or ONE little boy from this horror, isn't it worth it. Besides that, I actually think the storytelling is really strong, the characters have great arc, and Oscar-winner Miro Sorvino is just fantastic. The bad guy is appropriately disgusting and tormented. I would STRONGLY recommend this movie to anyone who cares about life.

I really want to like this movie and rate higher as an honest living person for its contents alone, but as a movie freak it was easy to say the screenplay was a letdown. Not based on the actual incident, but the film depicts how and where these things take place. In fact inspired by the director and producers of this film's own experience during a visit to the Cambodia. This was a movie about human trafficking, in the line of movies like 'Trade' and 'Eden'. An American couple who recently lost their child on a mission in a Southeast Asian city to fight the crime. What they encounter is the crux of the story. Don't anticipate breathtaking stunts and wide human traffic network like the movie 'Taken'. As I expected in this low budget movie, everything was too short including the cast with a simple story. But there is a powerful message, that's the most important and everything else is just a formality for a movie to have a basic thing. Watch it or not its up to you, because in one way worth give a try and in another, it is not. 6/10

It simply amazes me how films like this, ones that show the contrast between depravity and compassion, are hated. I cannot understand how stories such as this get buried under misguided judgment. I hear and read reviews that entirely miss the heart of the story and interested only in pointing out ill-perceived shortcomings. How many critics have actually stopped and fully considered the intent of the writer and what he was trying to accomplish? How many have placed themselves in the story and asked "what if this happened to me" or "what would've I done"? How many reviewers have been to places such as Cambodia and seen the horrors that this director has? Instead of pushing aside bias and taken in the film for what it was meant to be, they've done a great disservice by asserting their opinion based upon ill-perceived notions and toxic world view. "For evil to prevail, all it takes is enough good men to do nothing..." Christopher Bessette made a stand and a hard-hitting statement with this film. It has personally inspired me to keep giving my own money to support brave men such as those in an organization called "Underground Railroad" who put themselves at risk rescuing children from sex trafficking all around the world. I believe Mr. Bessette has done humanity a great service by awakening the hearts of those who'll listen to his stories. He's done his part and I can only hope he and others like him, will continue to make films of this magnitude to enflame the rest of us to do something.