[Screen It]

 

"TRAITOR"
(2008) (Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce) (PG-13)

If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button.
Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film.

QUICK TAKE:
Dramatic Thriller: Faced with a Muslim-American bomb maker working with foreign terrorists, U.S. Government officials race against the clock to find and stop him before his work is used to kill and create terror across various locations in America.
PLOT:
Having seen his father die decades ago in a car explosion, Muslim-American Samir Horn (DON CHEADLE) is no stranger to the world of bombs, detonators and such. He now sells such materials and his expertise to terrorist organizations, with his latest client being Omar (SAID TAGHMAOUI), a radical Muslim who works for suave businessman Fareed (ALY KHAN) and their big terrorist boss, Nathir (RAID RAWI).

This is unsettling news for FBI agents Roy Clayton (GUY PEARCE) and Max Archer (NEAL McDONOUGH) who once interrogated but got nothing from Samir following a raid on a terrorist stronghold. With Fareed's men staging a prison break, Samir and Omar are back on the streets again, and the FBI is understandably anxious to stymie their efforts, while the likes of Carter (JEFF DANIELS), a CIA official, also have a vested interest in the men.

With word that Nathir now has operatives in the U.S., Roy races against the clock -- and keeps an eye on Samir's contacts, such as former girlfriend Chandra Dawkin (ARCHIE PANJABI) -- hoping to find and stop the terrorists before they strike.

OUR TAKE: 5 out of 10
While there have always been sneak attacks and assassinations through the annals of time, for most of history one has always known who their enemy was and could usually see them coming. Those who practiced what would later be labeled guerilla warfare were viewed as opportunistic cowards, with some even being tried for such behavior (that being the plot of "Breaker Morant").

Ever since WWII and especially Vietnam, however, things have steadily changed, with military personnel and terrorists favoring the surprise ambush over most other tactics. The result is that it's become harder to "win" any such war, especially since the combatants look like the rest of the everyday folk. And with the zealots of certain religions being willing to die for whatever cause they believe in, that makes the task at hand -- catching them and preventing their deadly chaos -- even more fraught with danger.

As a terrorist states in the thriller "Traitor," terrorism is theater performed for an audience designed to provoke fear in everyone everywhere. The film, written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, touches on that very fact while looking at two disparate but similar men involved in such activities, as well as the feds who are after them. While theatrical prospects for the film look sketchy at best (as audiences are pretty much steering clear of flicks regarding the Iraq War, terrorism and such), the end result is a decent but otherwise unremarkable thriller.

In it, Don Cheadle plays an opportunistic bomb man who will sell his detonators and expertise with such devices to, it appears, anyone with the cash. That sort of thing obviously doesn't sit well with the U.S. Government, embodied here by the likes of Guy Pearce as the intelligent FBI pursuer, Neal McDonough as his old-school "beat 'em till they weep" partner, and Jeff Daniels as a more nebulous CIA operative. Their work is made more difficult considering that the terrorist leaders played by Aly Khan and Raad Rawi are seasoned veterans, and their main foot soldier -- Saïd Taghmaoui -- is so determined and good at what he does.

His and Cheadle's characters end up teaming up, with the Feds hot on their trail, hoping to pinpoint their location and stop them before they strike again. Considering that the film opens with Cheadle's character as a boy witnessing his father's death via a car bomb, there's little doubt there's more than radical Islam fueling his motivation. While I understand why the filmmakers reveal his secret so soon -- to give viewers a reason to care about rather than hate him, thus upping the ante for later peril when things go wrong -- I found that they let the proverbial cinematic cat out of the bag far too soon.

The result is that what could have been something of an engaging and maybe even captivating look at what drives such a character to such deeds simply turns into a fairly straightforward international thriller. Since we've seen this sort of story so many times before -- where the hero is in cahoots with the villains who might figure out his secret before he accomplishes his goal, and pursued by the feds who don't realize that's the situation -- there are few surprises to be had once that revelation occurs (around halfway or so through the pic). That's even considering a final twist that's intriguing and sort of cool in concept, but hard to believe in execution.

Granted, for this sort of story, Nachmanoff handles the material fairly well, and the performances are solid to strong across the board, with the always good Cheadle once again carrying the day. Taghmaoui easily equals his work, while Pearce holds his own in a part that's been done so many times it's pretty much a cliché nowadays.

And perhaps that's the film's biggest problem. Aside from having a Muslim-American as the central character, the rest feels like we've experienced it all before and thus can see most of what's coming long before it gets there. Like warfare, that approach seems old school now, meaning "Traitor" rates as just a 5 out of 10.




Reviewed August 4, 2008 / Posted August 27, 2008


Privacy Statement and Terms of Use and Disclaimer
By entering this site you acknowledge to having read and agreed to the above conditions.

All Rights Reserved,
©1996-2023 Screen It, Inc.