SOURCE: Romney, Jonathan. “Take the High Way.” New Statesman & Society 130, no. 4522 (29 January 2001): 46–47.

In the following mixed review, Romney argues that although Traffic is gripping, it fails to achieve a dispassionate feel.

In the course of his career, Steven Soderbergh has gone from being a well-meaning, low-budget tyro (sex, lies, and videotape) to a mainstream pro-for-hire (Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich), with the occasional blip of personal eccentricity along the way (Kafka, his little-seen absurdist farce Schizopolis, the sublime fish-out-of-water thriller The Limey). Traffic is his most confident film to date, and the sort of grand, serious statement by which a journeyman signals to the world that he would rather be seen as an auteur—a stylist and a pensive commentator on the state of things. And maybe the odd Oscar or Golden Globe wouldn't go amiss.

Well, good for Soderbergh that his boat has come in. He is...