Wednesday
27Aug2008
Movie Review - 'Traitor'
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 12:09AM TraitorStarring Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, and Saïd Taghmaoui
Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Rated R
Acting is not a straight line. Even
the best thespians have their own methods of reaching their ultimate destination, of
creating memorable, believable characters. Watching
Traitor is like watching two actors teaching a
master class, each armed with those traits that make them timeless performers.
Their characters are not larger than life, which is precisely why watching what
these venerable talents can do with them is so entrancing.
Don Cheadle’s genius is in finding an emotional
center for each character he plays, whether it’s the gun toting Mouse Alexander
in Devil in a Blue Dress or his heartbreaking Oscar-nominated turn as
Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda. Though he fits many of his characters
with accents and different devices to hide within them, what always comes out is
their emotion.
Conversely,
Guy Pearce is one of our best contemporary
chameleons. You could watch five Guy Pearce movies in a row and unless you were
looking for him, you’d have no idea he was in the movie. In fact, just watch his
last five performances: As an explorer in Two Brothers, an incomparably
bad seed in the Aussie western The Proposition, showing a dead to rights
Andy Warhol in Factory Girl, playing a desperate small-time hustler in
First Snow, and here, as a dutiful, honorable southern FBI agent. Pearce
disappears in these roles much the way Daniel Day-Lewis does. We recognize their
work, even if we don’t always recognize the actor.
Though Cheadle and Pearce don’t share
a ton of screen time in the new political thriller, we see enough of each man’s
process throughout the film to keep us truly riveted. Or at least, I was truly
riveted. I want to say I kept my full focus on the story, but that’s not true. I
was engrossed by the serve and volley of two actors, confident in themselves and
each other, sweating the small stuff to make their characters jump to life.
The story in the film is fascinating,
however: A native Kenyan, educated and trained by the military in the U.S. (Cheadle)
is arrested in Yemen for selling arms. Something about it doesn’t seem right,
however. He has no previous arrests, doesn’t fit the profile, and as the FBI
agent on the case point out, he’s an opportunist, but not a religious fanatic.
Religion plays a huge role in
Traitor; Cheadle’s character is a devout Muslim, Pearce's is the son of a
Baptist minister. This isn’t really about two worlds colliding, however. The
point is that they’re all part of the same world, which is so patently true,
it’s a wonder billions and billions of people fail to notice it in their
prayers, thoughts, and deeds.
But while the story in the film is
fascinating, the story behind it is equally noteworthy: This taut, intellectual
espionage cat-and-mouse game is based on an original story by
Steve Martin, who is also credited as an
executive producer. Now those are two worlds colliding.
You can agree with the motives and
positions Traitor takes, or you can find it in poor taste that this sort
of thing is being dramatized. I believe director
Jeffrey Nachmanoff tackled a very serious and
compelling subject in the right way. Movies about terrorism are bound to offend
people in this day and age, just as viewing a Muslim as a whole person capable
of restraint and compassion could be viewed as inflammatory. For those people,
I’m sure Toby Keith’s Beer For My Horses is still in theaters somewhere.
Mature adults won’t be bothered by the
subject any more than they’re bothered by the news. And mature adults will also
appreciate the remarkable performances of two wonderfully gifted actors, doing
their job in their own ways, but managing to leave us with the same reaction to
their work.
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