Traitor

Viewer Rating:mart1n has rated Traitor rating: 3 Star

The concept for Traitor involves a former US Special Operations officer who is suspected of being the perpetrator of terrorist bombings. In expanding that scenario for a screenplay, director Jeffrey Nachmanoff the protagonist a Muslim born in Sudan and raised in Chicago from when he was 12. When we first meet Samir (played by Don Cheadle) in Yemen, he's supplying Semtex to jihadists and attracting the attention of FBI special agents depicted as a good cop/bad cop team. One (Guy Pearce) comes from an academic background and is so zealous that he studied Arabic at college, the other is a hard-line, old school enforcer (Neal McDonough) Traitor preys on and strokes fears of terrorism in the post 9/11 world, it makes an effort to engage the viewer in questioning the obvious assumptions it raises through the purportedly enigmatic character of Samir. In that respect, however, Traitor is undermined by Cheadle's oddly inexpressive performance, and by director Nachmanoff's treatment of its tangled but rambling tale. To its credit, the film delivers a clever, satisfying punch line, getting to the resolution is such a cluttered path that you could, if you were so inclined, spend your time counting the various international locations this tirelessly globetrotting tale claims to visit as it spans three continents.

Review published on the 13 May 2009 18:01