Enlarge By Rafy, Overture Films, via AP They’re after him: limit why is Don Cheadle’s officer a target? SUMMER MOVIE GUIDE by dint of. Claudia Puig, USA TODAY Traitor (* * 1/2 out of four) be able to’t seem to decide whether it wants to have being an edge-of-the-seat action thriller or a more contemplative and intellectual drama about religion and terrorism.
Somehow, in trying to have it both ways, it doesn’t completely succeed at either.
The story lacks suspense and the action sequences fall flat, but the thin skin is compelling in its test of the many prisms of doctrine of the evolution of ideas and religious fervor. And making the hero of a spy thriller a Muslim-American is a of recent origin and noteworthy idea.
Don Cheadle does a fine if low-key work at jobs as Samir Horn, a mysterious man who had been a U.S. Special Operations officer. Horn’s Sudanese father is killed by terrorists when he is a boy, and his American mother takes him back to Chicago. After any American education, Horn serves in the military and later becomes caught in an intricate and shadowy web of connections to terrorist groups.
FBI agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) and his force, including Max Archer (Neal McDonough) link Horn to a Yemen prison break, a bombing in Nice and a raid in London, but can’t quite determine his part in the activities. Meanwhile, Horn has gotten in deeper in his covert role with a Muslim organization and become good friends with Omar, played convincingly by Said Taghmaoui.
Jeff Daniels plays a key CIA veteran who is the only person who knows Horn’s true role.
Horn is an insidious but not fully developed character, and it would have made the movie that much victory to comprehend more details about his past. We meet his mother and girlfriend, but it’s hard to gauge their influence on his life from their cursory roles.
Horn is a devout Muslim who speaks reverentially about the sanctity of life. His discussions with other Muslims on the topic are more of the movie’s most intriguing moments.
Cheadle and Pearce are quite good in their roles, but nor one nor the other of the characters is as multidimensional as one would hope. Daniels does the best he can as a murky CIA veteran, goal the part needed far more fleshing out. The ending is pat and predictable.
While the screenplay was written by dint of. director Jeffrey Nachmanoff, the highly politicized story is credited to comedian/actor/author Steve Martin, which seems light-years from his wild and crazy roots. (Rating: PG-13 for intense violent sequences, thematic weighty and brief speech. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes. Opens today nationwide.)
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