Traitor

In its ending, the film tries to make up for everything it had botched earlier. And the final twist is supposed to make a major point. Ahem. Traitor is too dramaturgically inconsistent for me. (01/25/2009)

A clever, thoughtful, intelligently delivered "small" film about big things, based primarily on excellent actors - Don Cheadle is great by default, Guy Pearce is back in form years later - and a penetrating look into the world of Islamic terrorism. However, the plot is not that great (not a lot happens in two hours) and the dialogues, although they contain a lot of life wisdom, are in fact repetitive in the second half. I feel sad not giving this 4 stars for the fantastic actors alone, but compared to the cynical glossators of Scott's Body of Lies, Traitor loses out quite significantly. Nachmanoff should have had his screenplay written by someone with a stronger authorial imprint because this will soon be forgotten. Which is too bad. 3 ½. (12/28/2008)

Current as anything; unclichéd, miles away from the regular movie perspective on terrorism. Nothing here is black or white. Maybe only the actors. This is a mix of the concepts of Sleeper Cell and The Believer. It’s low-key, worrying, rich in opinion, needlessly unsimplistic, down-to-earth and convincing, unfolds at a really relaxed tempo and due to that in places it’s almost un-movie-like. In spite (or perhaps because) of that my enthusiasm for it knew no bounds. At least in the first half, then after all it falls into the “one man against everybody else" genre rut. But it’s still excellent right up until the closing ten minutes. All of the above applies too, but in a completely opposite stance. I would have welcomed this with open arms in a Hollywood blockbuster, but in this case I feel like sending the person responsible to a work camp in Yemen. For life. (11/07/2008)

For losing almost two hours of my life to this movie, I have to thank a friend who significantly preferred it over Ridley Scott's Body of Lies. Because I really liked Scott's film, I was expecting something extraordinary and, in a way, it did come. While watching the actions in the world of terrorism, I suffered like an animal at times and shook my head in silent astonishment. The Traitor is not a complete disaster, but compared to Scott's professionally fast-paced popcorn flick, all the dramatic shortcomings, slower pace, and overall dullness of the film, as well as the lack of credibility and false tones in the script, become fully apparent. The final showdown with the army of terrorists seems seemingly impressive, but in reality, it is rather laughable. I was entertained for the first 15 minutes. Overall impression: 25%. (10/23/2013)

A well made spy thriller that you will completely forget about within the next hour. I guess if you’re going to make something like this, you have to know how -) (10/28/2009)