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Action thriller 'Traitor' tries to remain unbaised

By Scott Von Doviak

If asked to guess who came up with the fun idea of winding down the summer movie season in an election year with a War on Terror thriller, most people would not name Steve Martin.

But the erstwhile "wild and crazy guy" does indeed get the story credit for "Traitor," a confused spy movie that strains to give an even-handed portrayal of Islam even as it unwittingly fans the flames of anti-Muslim sentiment.

Don Cheadle stars as Samir Horn, a devout American Muslim arrested in Yemen for attempting to sell explosives to an Islamic terror organization. While imprisoned, Samir befriends and gains the trust of Omar (Said Taghmaoui), one of the terrorist cell's top operatives.

When his colleagues arrange a jailbreak, Omar brings along Samir and his extensive knowledge of blowing stuff up real good. Their plans begin with bombing the American consulate in Nice and culminate with a dramatic display of deadly force within the United States.

Two FBI agents are trying to prevent that from happening. Agent Archer (Neal McDonough) is the dead-eyed hard case of the "kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out" school. His partner Agent Clayton (Guy Pearce) is the son of a preacher who studied Arabic cultures in college, and the mouthpiece for the movie's "fair and balanced" views. As such, he gets stuck with all the expository dialogue about how every religion has its fanatical wing, but most Muslims are good people like you and me.

We're always one step ahead of the twists and turns "Traitor" throws at us, until they become so ludicrous it's hard to keep up. Even if you give "Traitor" the benefit of the doubt on its depiction of Muslims, the movie is sunk by its dramatic failings. Cheadle gives a low-key performance — that's a kind way of saying "boring" — and the manufactured suspense is undercut by too many dull, talky scenes. This is one "Traitor" that should have never been released.