Movie review: 'Traitor'
MOVIE REVIEW
Don Cheadle reaffirms his excellence in a good, terrorism-themed thriller that also features Guy Pearce and Jeff Daniels.
"Traitor" asks a question that can be answered only by that cruel mistress, the marketplace: How much moral ambiguity and narrative intricacy will an audience handle in the realm of a terrorism-themed contemporary thriller? Enough, I hope, to respond to "Traitor." It tells a good, snakelike story, slithering in some unpredictable directions.
All along the way, Don Cheadle, who plays the mysterious operative creating and running an espionage maze of his own design, reaffirms his excellence. He is an honest, responsive actor, and as a rogue ex-U.S. Special Operations officer and highly conflicted Muslim, Cheadle recalls a variety of old-school stars -- think Spencer Tracy or Sidney Poitier -- in the way he keeps it simple and puts the story needs ahead of his own.
The story was cooked up by Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin. The entire narrative constitutes a series of spoilers, so I'll be brief and cryptic. We begin with a quick prologue in 1978 Sudan. A boy witnesses a car bombing. Swiftly, we're whisked into present-day Yemen, and the Sudanese boy has become a man shaped by violence. He is Samir Horn (Cheadle). How did this man, whom we later learn spent many years in Chicago, become part of the jihadist cause represented by Omar (Saïd Taghmaoui)? That's one story track. Another is a riddle: While the film's title clues you into Samir's double-edged nature, "Traitor" plays an intriguing shell game with the specifics, and with the role in the story played by CIA contractor Carter (Jeff Daniels).
Most screenwriters, working with this sort of scenario, would go out of their way to marginalize and fully, madly, deeply demonize the jihad-driven characters. "Traitor," despite what you're likely to hear on "Hannity & Colmes," is not anti-American. It does, however, let Samir -- an ambig- uous and shape-shifting character -- run the story and, for much of it, stay a step ahead of his global pursuers, FBI agents Clayton (Guy Pearce) and Archer (Neal McDonough).
The writer-director is Jeffrey Nachmanoff, who wrote the eco-disaster pic "The Day After Tomorrow." This one's a lot more interesting. What Nachmanoff, making his feature directorial debut, does best here is bring a sudden, nerve-racking quality to the violence. Most political thrillers are preoccupied with exciting the audience and making it feel good about the bad guys dying in brainlessly colorful ways. This one is more about pulling us into its labyrinth and messing with our sympathies, craftily.
