I finally just watched Sex Traffic. A text that is probably better served the more contemporary it is -- this is one of the burdens of not having television -- where a substantial chunk of the world's most creative minds are presently engaged. Such an intense story, on the edge between documentary, non-fiction doctoring, drama, sentimental rescue narrative, and the hero quest. All in one package. This may sound strange, but after the emotional wash of the movie subsided, I was swamped by comparisons to Morley Callaghan's Such is My Beloved, one of the greatest books of all time, according to some. And yes, I am the type of guy who responds to the world by thinking of Morley Callaghan novels. The modelling, once you accept it as a basic rubric, actually plays out quite well -- guy from moral centre enters into seedy/sexual underworld, meets two women who are deeply mired in underworld, sacrifices to rescue them, is rebuffed by a hypocritical moral centre, is rebuffed by girls (well, girl in the movie, one stays with him). Even the donation scene is a perfect 'borrow' from Callaghan. So -- to add to the genres -- we have to add literary adaptation (if my argument is not convincing -- to counter, I would say read Emma and then watch Clueless (note: spell check offered me "cellulose" for "Clueless") which IS considered an adaptation, and see which textual pairing is closer). The comparison is fascinating, though, when you consider it on the larger scale -- both texts critique the moral centre of Canadian society, Callaghan the Christian church in the 1920s, and David Yates (sorry, the director of the movie) the Free World. In fact, though, Yates focuses his critique on the nefarious world of American corporations. I should clarify -- Yates critiques "free world" ambivalence, like Callaghan, but focuses on a particular malignant body within its midst. Callaghan is much broader in his analysis of the moral hypocrisy of Canada, and by default the Western world. Callaghan found his story after extended discussions with Jacques Maritian, the French philosopher, who visited Toronto for a spell in the 1920s. You can feel the international implications of the text even though it is set exclusively in Toronto. By contrast, the moral compromise of the Sex Traffic international setting feels, to a certain extent, more localized to the evil villains in the movie -- the sex traffickers and the American businessmen (and their materialistic wives). The movie revolves around a classic hero-villain structure, whereas Callaghan's novel has that remarkable philosophic edge that pits a moral being against an entire decadent culture, lost in its own moral