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Traitor Reviewed By Rich Drees
Hopefully, though, people will be able to look past their weariness on the subject, because besides being thought provoking, Traitor is also a crackerjack thriller that draws you into its story and doesn’t let go until its final frames.
Don Cheadle stars as Samir, an American-citizen Muslim and ex-Special Forces op who is now selling explosive ordinance to whomever wants it in the Middle East. Through a series of incidents, he becomes a member of a radical Islam terrorist cell, working his way into the confidence of its leaders. However, his movements don’t appear to be as clandestine as one would expect, as two FBI terrorism experts, played by Guy Pearce and Neal MacDonough, are hot on his trail and are close to unraveling the impending terror attack he is involved with.
The movie takes a plot turn at its mid-point, answering the “Is he or isn’t he?” question that had been building steadily through the movie. Rather than spring this plot revelation on the audience from out of the blue, the screenplay slowly sows the seeds for the reveal. It is a twist that is honestly and smartly earned and it is rather nice to have a movie respect an audience’s intelligence the way it does here.
Traitor rockets along to a climax that manages to deliver on both a pure story level and on its thematic level. You’ll cheer when the right people get their comeuppance, but once you are out of the theater, you’ll still have plenty to think over on the trip back home. The film never seems to deliver an answer for its central questions. And it is all the better for it. |
It is a shame that it appears that audiences seem to be tired of
films about the continuing War on Terror and its repercussions
through society, as Traitor looks at this conflict from a
viewpoint seldom seen in the ongoing discussion on terrorism and
radical Islam, using its fictionalized story to illustrate some
truths and ask some hard questions. 
To be sure, this film is going to irritate those who prefer their
real life villains to be a homogeneous stereotype. It makes it
easier to prop them up as boogeymen. What Traitor succeeds in
doing is showing that the Muslim religion is not one monolithic
entity. As a community, it is deeply divided over the actions some
have taken in the name of their religion. It also shows how
difficult it may be to combat this hijacking of their religion while
still staying to true to the precepts of Islam as they see them.
Samir is shown to be a devout Muslim, one who does not just give lip
service to his religion, but practices and lives it daily.
Ultimately, as in the case of Cheadle’s character, many Muslims will
find themselves caught in-between the two extremes, knowing that
they will be labeled a traitor by one side or the other. It is this
inner tension that the movie follows and which Cheadle as an actor
mines so well here.