Remove Cheadle’s nuanced performance from the equation and you’re left with nothing but caricatures: long-suffering girlfriends, protective bosses, evil masterminds dropping Koran quotes.
Comment
08/27/08
Traitor (2008)
61
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:157
Fresh:95
Rotten:62
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: Despite another reliable performance from Don Cheadle, Traitor suffers from too many cliches and an unfocused narrative.
Theatrical Release:Aug 29, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $23,501,463
Synopsis: TRAITOR is writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff's powerful rumination on post-9/11 foreign affairs wrapped up into a taut contemporary spy thriller. Balancing the film's sometimes conflicted... [More]
Starring: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Said Taghmaoui, Neal McDonough
Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
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Reviews for Traitor
It's another good one from Cheadle, who has become the go-to guy for political thrillers.
08/27/08
First-time director Jeffrey Nachmanoff, known for The Day After Tomorrow script, wrote the screenplay. Of all people, Steve Martin came up with the idea. It is neither wild nor crazy.
08/27/08
Traitor delivers plot twists but few real surprises.
08/27/08
Traitor is smart, effective, and at times suspenseful. It's one of a very few terrorist-themed movies that presents its situation without resorting to exploitation or oversimplification.
08/27/08
Top CriticObserving the conventions of the millennial thriller, it succeeds in amping up the suspense. Yet it never fully engages the ethical conflicts it raises.
08/27/08
Top CriticRipped-from-the-headlines realism, top-drawer performances by Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce, a dandy 'ticking clock' story structure and a vast catalog of terrorist modus operandi make this as harrowing as it is timely.
08/27/08
Unfortunately, the movie stumbles a fair bit.
08/27/08
Without its mesmerizing lead performance, Traitor easily could have devolved into direct-to-DVD fodder. Instead, Cheadle illustrates how great acting can elevate standard-issue material into something much more haunting and ambiguous.
08/27/08
To call Traitor deeper than the average Hollywood thriller may not be saying much, but the film deserves credit for trying to both challenge and entertain its audience.
08/27/08
Ultimately the film is both too contrived and too casual, both relentless in the way it manipulates its plot and sloppy in its understanding of the consequences.
08/27/08
Top CriticA solid, intelligent international thriller showcasing the underrated Don Cheadle in an intriguing and morally ambiguous role, Traitor is the best end-of-August movie I've seen in years.
08/27/08
Top CriticThe twisty, turny Traitor succeeds where similarly topical thrillers often fail because, like its protagonist, it plays its cards close to the vest.
08/27/08
Traitor blusters and whines like innumerable Steve Martin personas, too focused on making noise to think up much to say.
08/27/08
The action-thriller stuff is serviceable, if unremarkable, but there's no denying the sense that the filmmakers lost their nerve.
08/27/08
Flat and just plain boring most of the time, Traitor wastes some fine actors -- Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Jeff Daniels and Said Taghmaoui -- and a topical story, finding no sparks in what should be an incendiary tale of terrorism.
08/27/08
In the subgenre of post- 9/11 films, it falls between the serious, compelling Syriana and the slighter, action-packed Vantage Point.
08/27/08
A confused and unsatisfying experience with some nice moments that don't amount to much.
08/27/08
A thriller that's frequently implausible but almost always thoughtful.
08/27/08
Traitor offers up one of the more maddeningly, gratifyingly complex lead characters seen in movies lately.
08/27/08
Latest News for Traitor
January 04, 2009:
This double or maybe even triple agent dude decidedly favors a kind of 'this hurts me more than it hurts you' scorched earth policy, a mentality not exactly conducive to cozy plot resolutions. 
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January 03, 2009:
This double or maybe even triple agent dude decidedly favors a kind of 'this hurts me more than it hurts you' scorched earth policy, a mentality not exactly conducive to cozy plot resolutions.
More...
December 30, 2008:
This double or maybe even triple agent dude decidedly favors a kind of 'this hurts me more than it hurts you' scorched earth policy, a mentality not exactly conducive to cozy plot resolutions.
More...
December 18, 2008:
Five Favorite Films with Don Cheadle
In last August's Traitor, Don Cheadle took on the challenge of tempering a Bourne-like action hero with the moral ambiguity of real world concerns: namely, terrorism and the... More...
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