Traitor

Aroview: Don Cheadle stars as a Semtex racketeer selling to the highest bidder - be he CIA or Jihadist - and finds himself a pawn on the twin battlefields of global terrorism and moral culpability.

Hot on the trail, the Feds (led by Guy Pearce) realise they know as little about their home turf as they do their target, an Al-Qaeda-alike racking up the bomb blasts in Western capitals en route to a glorious coup-de-grace in the name of Allah. Cheadle is brooding, sympathetic, and sincere, his portrayal of a character caught between worlds reminiscent of his role in CRASH. Some heavy-handed insinuations can be pardoned due to a nicely unrolled sense of suspense, and similarly, some wearying stock supporting performances are leavened by neat twists and flare-ups of personality. The film also gets points for taking a novel tack with its topical treatment of the well-worn spy film. The biggest shock may come when one learns the film was adapted from a story by Steve Martin(!).

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