Traffic started racking up honors even before it opened at theaters in New York and Los Angeles last Wednesday.

        New York Film Critics Circle anointed it the best film of 2000. The National Board of Review dubbed Steven Soderbergh best director.

        The film showed up on critics' top-10 lists all over the country and picked up five Golden Globe nominations.

        That bodes well for a movie that takes on complex questions surrounding the illegal drug trade in Mexico; Washington, D.C.; California; and Cincinnati, where part of Traffic was filmed in May.

        “You can get caught up talking about drug policy,” said Michael Douglas. “But you really want to know, how good is the movie? If it isn't a good movie, people won't care what you have to say.”

        Mr. Douglas heads an ensemble cast in the role of an Ohio judge chosen to lead the nation's war on drugs just before he learns his teen-age daughter is addicted to heroin.

        The movie opens nationwide on Friday; local cast and crew and guests of the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Film Commission will see it tonight at a private screening.

        Michael Douglas was a Tristate tourist

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