Oh, I'm a Terrorist?

As someone who dislikes spoilers, it is hard to understand why the people behind Traitor would name it as such. It is easy to assume that with that name in big bold lettering above a picture of Don Cheadle (Traffic) that he would be playing a traitor. Yet for the first third of the two hour film it is ambiguous who the title refers to and you just wait for Cheadle to show his hand even though early in the film he is imprisoned for terrorist act.

His arrest raises the eyebrow of the FBI, Guy Pierce (Memento) in particular. Playing the bad cop to Pierce’s good is Neil McDonough who is always a solid go to humongous tool even if he is on the right side of the law in this movie, but he does get the best lines. Also entangled in the storyline, and the keeper of who is the traitor, is Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber).

There is a big plot twist in the second third of the movie, but it has been done numerous times before so it shouldn’t be that shocking as once the scene begins, it isn’t hard to see what’s coming. But Cheadle pulls another twist later that more than makes up for it. With that said, and the spoilerish title aside, Traitor is a solid film that you can tell was well research and as you can tell by the cast, it is well acted with all the actors bringing their A-game. So when you watch it, just forget the title and enjoy the popcorn.

Traitor gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.