Review of Traitor (2008) by Andrew H — 04 Sep 2009

A thinking man's thriller that, while occasionally bowing to cliche (although an excellent turn is put in by Jeff Daniels as the CIA agent whose tool perhaps goes renegade), stays away from the usual Hollywood, 'let's blow everything up' school.

Yes, there are bombs exploding but they are plot points and not supposed to be "action"; said action comes from the charactor building aspects; the friendships and perhaps betrayals, and from wondering who is a traitor to whom.

It was a delight to watch the FBI figure things out, while being kept in the dark by the CIA - a theme we've all seen a million times before, but here, once again, it is used more to drive the plot than BE the plot.

Some have mentioned that Cheadle is not meant to be an "action" hero - well, this is NOT an action film, and if you were listening and paying attention at all (and really, this is the main theme of the film), Cheadle's Muslim charactor is anti-violence (there's a quote from the Koran about it being a sin to take another man's life - with the somewhat snide remark by the all too westernized opperative, that it also states in the Koran that you will be blessed by saving a life, so the two equal out - and it's a jihad after all, so all bets are off).

Not a perfect film, as the wife thing was film misspent, and yet I was very much into finding out who was being unfaithful to whom, and even though the ending could be considered a waving of the American flag, it was fresh and exciting, and hopeful. Of course the tag was wasted film - it should have ended with Cheadle being shot after shooting the cell leaders and trying to save his friend.