The Little Traitor Reviews
Top Critic
Doesn't attempt much, doesn't accomplish much, doesn't offer much and doesn't leave you with anything memorable to take home with you.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
San Diego Union-Tribune
It's easy to see how parents and teachers of school-aged kids could find "The Little Traitor" useful to begin an introductory conversation about tolerance and friendship. But the film's childish tone does little to enlighten the rest of us.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
The Little Traitor bounces between coming-of-age high jinks and clunky geopolitical lessons.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
The dialogue and Roth's storytelling manner are heavy handed...
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Treacly love-thy-enemy yarn in a historically remarkable place and time
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
An interesting look at the transitory nature of enemies and the way history shifts alliances.
Full Review
| Original Score: B
Austin Chronicle
The film slams to a halt every time Port opens his mouth and widens his gee-willikers peepers; since he's the titular traitor and is in virtually every scene, Roth's film never has much of a chance.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/5
The mix of mawkishness and polemic is naive. Children, though, will probably leave with a lot of good questions. A better movie would leave them with more.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
An engaging Israeli film about the days when the people throwing rocks, assassinating soldiers and setting off bombs were Jews out to carve a state for themselves out of the British "mandate" in Palestine.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
A lyrical yet emotionally spare film about the unexpected casualties of war.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Film-Forward.com
Poignant, child's view of the summer of 1947, just before the sun set on the Brit Empire in Jerusalem and everything changed, but does't catch the ruefulness of Oz's novel.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7/10
The cost of zealotry, and its collateral damage, aren't Roth's chief concerns -- humanity is -- but she manages to confect a film of both sweetness and subtle meaning.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Boxoffice Magazine
Shooting on locations in Jerusalem, the film feels real and authentic with Roth getting the most out of the local atmosphere but itâ(TM)s her fine screenplay and keen eye for casting that makes The Little Traitor stand out from the pack.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
A muddled morality tale more interested in coming of age than getting of wisdom.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
A pleasing but light nostalgia piece with a frustratingly hasty ending, The Little Traitor doesn't lead to any big twist or revelation. For viewers with a fondness for Israel, though, it amounts to cinematic comfort food.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Sentimental and a bit too cute in evoking a child's-eye view.
Set during a fascinating and hard-to-reduce moment in history, the movie steers clear of any but the most basic conflicts and resolutions.
