TRAITOR
TRAITOR |
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An American muslim is selling explosives in the Midle East. An FBI agent is trying to stop him taking his trade into the heart of American. Yet neither fully understand the situation theyre in. | score 3+ |
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| Cast Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Saïd Taghmaoui, Neal McDonough, Jeff Daniels, Archie Panjabi Director Jeffrey Nachmanoff Screenwriter Jeffrey Nachmanoff Country USA Rating / Running Time M / 114 minutes Australian Release November 2008 Official Site (c) moviereview
2006-2008
ABN 72 775 390 361 |
One
of the most surprising things about this above-par, post-9/11
international thriller is its source, based as it is on a story by
funny-man Steve Martin. The alarm bells don’t stop ringing when
you consider that his choice of screenwriter and director is Jeffrey
Nachmanoff, scribe of sci-fi pot-boiler The Day After Tomorrow.
Yet against all odds, Traitor is an absorbing and provocative attempt
to unravel some of the cultural and political confusion that has got us
in the mess we’re in today. It opens in the Middle East where American Samir (Don Cheadle) is selling explosive hardware. The deal goes wrong, sending him and his contact Omar (Saïd Taghmaoui) to jail. They forge a relationship – “Jihad is your duty,” says Omar unaware that Agent Roy Clayton (a magnetic Guy Pearce) is hard on Samir’s tail. Yet a plan is hatched that will take terrorism deep into the heart of America unless Clayton can stop them. Which just leaves the issue of the traitor. Shot with a fashionably gritty shine, Traitor is not only first class entertainment, it’s an education. Nestled somewhere between the recent Body of Lies and Syriana, it becomes something of a how-dunnit, as we already know who is going to do what. Motive is another matter. Nachmanoff strikes an attractive balance between adrenalising action and hefty philosophical arguments that anchor quieter scenes. “Terrorism is theatre,” says one of Omar’s associates. And how. Tension builds confidently toward an impressive showdown that, while predestined, plays out most unexpectedly. Traitor, like its namesake, is a tricky film. To varying degrees, none of the players are what they seem and it is this uncertainty that gives the story its strength. One that defies assumptions to help explain another side of the treacherous world in which we live. // COLIN FRASER |