Traitor - B

In theaters. Rated R, 114 minutes. Trailer.

Traitor, starring Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce and Jeff Daniels, is the latest addition to the USA vs terrorism genre. This film follows the Obama-type backgrounder Samir (Cheadle) as he works with a group of Islamic Fundamentalist terrorists targeting US interests. Not a lot of ground is broken, but this is a decent movie with a thoughtful premise and a solid, anchoring performance from Cheadle. Click below for more TRAITOR:

Samir was raised partially in Yemen and in Chicago and is a devout muslim with US Special Forces training. He orchestrates bombings as he rises within the terrorist network, but his true allegiance is a mystery throughout much of the film. His FBI foil is Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce), the son of a preacher seeking to keep America safe. As Samir grows with the terrorists and interacts with the USA, the filmmakers try and make the basic point that the war against terrorism is not that simple and that true Islam is not violent. Not sure about that, but what I do know is that the film doesn't shy away from the reality of the motivations of the bombers, although the multi-culti group assembled for the climactic bombing is comedic it is so PC.

This film is hard to write about because it wasn't really remarkable in any way, it was just 'there'. There were some suspenseful moments and decent moral dilemmas, but too many of the characters felt slapped together and pointless. Pearce does his best in a poorly written role, and Jeff Daniels does the same. The FBI interaction was strictly by the numbers, and without Cheadle this would have suffered greatly. Kind of a Syriana meets Bourne Identity minus a full letter grade.