Seen on: August 30, 2008

The players: Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Writers: Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Steve Martin (Story), Cast: Don Cheadle, Archie Panjabi, Guy Pearce, Lorena Gale, Aly Khan, Said Taghmaoui, Jeff Daniels, Neal McDonough

Facts of interest: Jeffrey Nachmanoff also wrote the script for Roland Emmerich's "The Day After Tomorrow."

The plot: Two FBI agents travel the globe in search of a former Special Operations officer who is tied to a terrorist cell.

Our quick thoughts: In Jeffrey Nachmanoff’s “Traitor,” Don Cheadle stars as Samir Horn, a former U.S. Special Operations officer who disappeared from the surface of the Earth after getting involved with foreign terrorist cells. Worried about Horn’s involvement in future international attacks, the FBI sends agents Clayton (Guy Pearce) and Archer (Neal McDonough) on a tricky manhunt, unaware of the fact that the man they’re looking for may have a different agenda.  

My biggest complaint about the movie is that it’s quite simply not suspenseful enough for a thriller that runs for almost two hours. Action sequences do pop up occasionally, but none of them really managed to captivate me. Instead, they left me wondering if Nachmanoff just threw them in there to keep the plot from stalling too much. Whatever the intentions of the filmmakers, “Traitor” feels more like an exposé about religion and terrorism than an intriguing, action-packed thriller.

These issues put aside, the film offers several intriguing insights into the structure and operation of a terrorist cell, creating an uncomfortable sense of fear that what you see on the screen could just as well happen in reality. The film delivers an interesting examination of the terrorists’ religious motivation to plan large-scale attacks and the will of the U.S. authorities to protect its citizens, stressing however that both make crucial mistakes in trying to reach their respective goals.

Don Cheadle is a great actor who can do pretty much anything with a sophisticated character, and while Samir has an interesting personality, I feel Nachmanoff could have done so much more with him. Samir makes some interesting observations when he discusses the importance of his faith in what he does, but more often than not does he spend too much time praying and repeating himself. It’s unfortunate that the script fails to dig deeper into its characters’ complex minds.

I personally enjoyed Pearce’s performance as the understanding FBI agent, although he too deserves further development. The superficiality of his character doesn’t cause great damage to the overall quality of the film, but it does prevent the final product from being so much more intriguing. Acting honors also go to Saïd Taghmaoui, who delivers a flawless performance as one of Samir’s close partners.

Freaky quote: “The truth is complicated." – Don Cheadle

The final word: While “Traitor” suffers from some obvious flaws that could have been avoided, it’s still undoubtedly the best film among this weekend’s new releases. I didn’t want to dig too deep into the film’s thematic because I would like you to experience it for yourself if you decide to see it, but if I had only a few words to express my opinion, I would call it a decent drama with strong acting and solid enough pacing.        

Article by Franck Tabouring