One of the most incredible aspects of Steven Soderbergh's Oscar-winning drama is that it takes the viewer at least 10 minutes to realise that this is a movie made in America with a glittering cast and a massive budget.

The sepia-tinged opening sequence in a desert focuses on two Spanish men inside a battered old car talking in their native tongue about their dreams and aspirations.

It's only when a plane flies low overhead that the action begins and never stops.

In a completely original and thrilling style of storytelling, Soderbergh builds up a picture of the corruption, wealth, violence and misery that are the true trademarks of the drug trafficking cartels on the Mexican-US border.

The director has cleverly created three very diverse storylines, occurring in two very different countries.

The contrast is made obvious, for the benefit of the audience, by using steely blue shading in the US and sun-bleached orange and yellow colouring when south of the border.

But the real triumph of this montage is the pacing. There's a constant rhythm, even in the scene when the US drug Czar's (Douglas) daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) is passed out in a cocaine-induced stupor.

There is no dialogue in this scene, yet the rhythm and movement continue to depict her racing heart rate and downward spiralling life.

A uniformly excellent cast is led by Douglas, but Del Torro's performance as Javier Rodriquez - the honest and ambitious Mexican officer who is caught in the deep end of a dangerous new world - is well deserving of his Best Actor Oscar.

With multiple storylines depicted by the hand-held camera and colloquial dialogue, everything becomes real in this bleak world in a film that will leave you feeling breathless and moved.

It's a drama directed as if it were a thriller.

The mosaic of gripping and unquestionably revealing stories makes this an eye opener in terms of moviemaking and factual interpretations of an underworld.

Natalie Stone