Wiggly Socks Movie Reviews

By Linda Winsh-Bolard


Jorge (Cesar Ramos), makes his money by peddling pictures of non-existent young prostitutes to tourists whom he lures into a seedy part of Mexico City where he robs them of all they have at gunpoint.

In the same part of the city Vadim (Pasha D. Lynchnikoff) runs a sex trade business. His associates ensnare two young Polish women. But the women are intelligent and become suspicious. One dies when she tries to run away, the other Veronica (Alijca Bachleda) is captured. Chance will have it, that Adriana, Jorge's sister, will be abducted from the street to make up the numbers.

Jorge is desperate and determined to find Adriana (Paulina Gaitan). He meets with excuses when he seeks official help, so he starts trailing the van transporting the kids and women. While on pursuit ,he meets an American cop, Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline), whose daughter was sold ten years ago somewhere in Mexico. They teem up trying to outrun the sex traders, the indifferent cops, border patrols and the ambivalent people.

In a meantime, Veronica tries to fight off the abductors, escape and protect Adriana. During an attempt to escape she manages to call home and finds out that strangers already took her baby son, for whose better future she decided to leave Poland. She choses to jumps of a cliff that reminds her of all the beautiful pictures of America she has seen rather than suffer further abuse. It is a beautifully shot and edited scene blending her memories and hopes with her current reality and Agnus Dei in sound.

Ray gets entangled in sex trader's game after his friends put his career ahead of Adriana's life.


The film obviously works well know theme, by now we are all aware that sex trade, in women and children, is alive and growing. We are also aware that the former Eastern Europe, impoverished by new systems, supplies a large portion of the victims, mostly by promising them work abroad.

We would like to forget is that it is not just one bad man, or few men, but large networks of people, sex , nationality and age making no difference, who trade in humans, and that these people are not drug addicts but opportunists living next door and looking for fast money. They are aided and abetted by official indifference, laziness and corruption.

Veronica is dismissed when she tells to an American guard that she was kidnapped. Jorge is dismissed by a Mexican official when he seeks help in finding his sister. The victims and their families are neither rich, nor powerful, the sex traders are both.

The film points out people's perception of others as inferior beings: for the Mexican rapists Veronica is just a communist whore, for the American patrol the captured Mexicans are just illegals, for Jorge Ray is just a stupid gringo. Our own sense of superiority prevents justice.

It is sadly absurd that the critics tout the film as an: "abduction of 13 years Mexican girl"and pass over Veronica's fate completely. Alicja Bachleda has a strong screen presence and I'd like to see her again. Cesar Ramos and Paulina Gaitan both come across as street smart but young people well aware of the ramifications of their birth circumstances. Kevin Kline is tired man, who often gave up before he had to and came to a conclusion that he does not want to do that again.
Unusually strong music score and sometimes astounding staging.

Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner; written by Jose Rivera, based on the New York Times Magazine article "The Girls Next Door" by Peter Landesman; director of photography, Daniel Gottschalk; edited by Hansjorg Weissbrich; music by Jacobo Lieberman and Leonardo Heiblum; Cast: Kevin Kline (Ray Sheridan), Cesar Ramos (Jorge), Alicja Bachleda (Veronica), Paulina Gaitan (Adriana), Marco Perez (Manuelo), Linda Emond (Patty Sheridan), Zack Ward (Alex Green), Kate Del Castillo (Laura), Tim Reid (Hank Jefferson) and Pasha D. Lynchnikoff (Vadim Youchenko).