"Traitor" is an attempt to take us inside a modern-day Islamic terrorist group by telling the story of Samir Horn (played by Don Cheadle). The movie leaves us guessing as to Samir's true loyalties as he gets involved in planning a major terror attack on the US, while FBI agent Roy Clayton (played by Guy Pearce) leads the government effort to thwart the plot.
On the positive side, the acting in "Traitor" is uniformly great, without standout performances from Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce as the lead characters. The direction and cinematography are at a high level as well.
So what's the problem with "Traitor" then? The problem is that "Traitor" can't decide what kind of movie it wants to be: a silly action movie, or an intelligent thriller. "Traitor" starts out as a slow-paced, intelligent, story-based thriller, but at the halfway point, it turns into a silly Hollywood action movie that unfortunately, doesn't have a lot of action.
A more consistent story would have made "Traitor" a better film. The first half of "Traitor" is quite compelling and effective as it establishes the characters and sets the story in motion. But as the movie enters silly action-thriller territory, all the tension and mood built up in the first half of the film is lost. And as mentioned earlier, there's simply not enough action sequences to make up for the foolish story.
It's a real shame that the movie makers didn't end "Traitor" with the same focus and determination with which they started it because the movie had a lot of potential.
On the positive side, the acting in "Traitor" is uniformly great, without standout performances from Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce as the lead characters. The direction and cinematography are at a high level as well.
So what's the problem with "Traitor" then? The problem is that "Traitor" can't decide what kind of movie it wants to be: a silly action movie, or an intelligent thriller. "Traitor" starts out as a slow-paced, intelligent, story-based thriller, but at the halfway point, it turns into a silly Hollywood action movie that unfortunately, doesn't have a lot of action.
A more consistent story would have made "Traitor" a better film. The first half of "Traitor" is quite compelling and effective as it establishes the characters and sets the story in motion. But as the movie enters silly action-thriller territory, all the tension and mood built up in the first half of the film is lost. And as mentioned earlier, there's simply not enough action sequences to make up for the foolish story.
It's a real shame that the movie makers didn't end "Traitor" with the same focus and determination with which they started it because the movie had a lot of potential.