Traitor
Jeffrey Nachmanoff

The story: Devout Sudanese-American Muslim Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) has attracted the suspicions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for being in the vicinity of several terrorist bombings.
Agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) heads up a task force investigation to link the former United States Army Special Forces explosives expert to these attacks and to stop him from striking again.

The political thriller is a tricky genre. Too much background information and the film risks getting bogged down in a morass of details; too little and it turns into a run-of-the-mill action flick.
This film, for the most part, is a smart, nuanced take on a current hot potato – the issue of international terrorism. While the hit television series 24 is a non-stop adrenaline pumper, Traitor’s writer-director Jeffrey Nachmanoff has sought to balance both the action and plot elements.
The scenario here is America’s worst nightmare, the activation of dozens of sleeper cell agents to carry out a coordinated terrorist attack, also explored in Showtime’s drama Sleeper Cell (2005-2006).
Even though the villains here are Muslim terrorists, the audience is presented with an even-handed treatment of religion that illustrates the fact that extremism is not a failing exclusive to Islam.
Agent Clayton says at one point: “Where I grew up, the Klan burned crosses in front of people’s houses and called it Christianity. Then my daddy and the folks from the church would drive over and put them out. Seems every religion has more than one face.”
Traitor also points out the irony that those who pursue the terrorists can end up echoing their rhetoric.
An American agent declares: “This is a war. You do what it takes to win. We’re the good guys.” The wry response: “You know who you sound like, right?”
It poses the prickly question of whether the means can ever justify the end, an issue that has been hotly debated after the curbing of civil liberties in the United States and the setting up of Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in which those deemed to be “enemy combatants” were detained without trial and allegedly subjected to torture.
The central character of Samir Horn is an enigmatic one, and the excellent Don Cheadle draws you in and keeps you guessing his intentions. Inevitably, when his true inclinations are revealed, the tension slackens though Cheadle keeps you watching.
The actor has proved his versatility since his electrifying supporting turn as the unhinged Mouse in Devil In A Blue Dress (1995), going on to win an Oscar nomination for the genocide drama, Hotel Rwanda (2004) as well as delivering turns in more commercial fare such as the ensemble crime caper Ocean’s Eleven franchise.
He is well supported here by Pearce as the persistent and fair-minded Clayton, Jeff Daniels as an amoral Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) contractor and French-Moroccan star Said Taghmaoui, now appearing in Lost, as a charismatic Muslim leader.
The movie sometimes threatens to slip into generic cop thriller territory but manages to steer just clear of it. A pity, then, that the resolution of the sleeper cell attack feels too rushed and convenient.
Still, you will not want to turn your back on Traitor.
(ST)