Morals, motive elusive in 'Traitor'

In "Traitor," actor Don Cheadle tries to keep us guessing about his true motives and morality while playing a role that seems almost as challenging.

He plays an American Muslim and ex-operations officer named Samir Horn. He may be a turncoat tied to Islamic terrorists with ex-jail mate and friend Omar (Said Taghmaoui). Or he could be a double agent controlled by freelancing American CIA agent Carter (Jeff Daniels), the only other guy who knows Samir's secret mission.

It's an interesting idea. But Samir is really only an approximation of a great role in an approximation of a good movie, with Cheadle trying to pump ambiguity and sensitivity into a bogus story. "Traitor," shot in multiple locations from Chicago to Paris, is a would-be philosophical/political thriller that keeps getting more wildly improbable until it finally goes haywire.

For the first half, "Traitor" seems more substantial, another of the new breed of smart, high-tech political suspense movies that includes "Traffic," "Syriana," "Michael Clayton" and the "Bourne" series, all with glossy technique, thrills and something to say. For a while, Cheadle's Samir seems to be a deeper character, a believable man caught in a fascinating trap.

If he's a traitor, then he's an idealist who's become pathologically consumed by his own religion, as has his buddy Omar. If he's a double agent, then he's sinking deeper and deeper into moral chaos by taking part in bombings and terrorist actions whose only justification is his effectiveness in uncovering even worse terrorism: a planned Thanksgiving Day bombing cooked up by Omar's jihadist group.

There's another plot strand. Taciturn FBI agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) is hot on Samir's tail, along with his sarcastic partner Max (Neal McDonough). These two plot paths ultimately converge, but disastrously.

"Traitor's" loopy surprise climax was an idea of executive producer Steve Martin, and it became the genesis of the whole project, with writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff dreaming up everything that leads to it.

Martin's idea is closer to comedy ­- extremely dark comedy - than to the terse, nearly humorless realism and humanism that Nachmanoff tries to build up, with assistance by J. Michael Muro's hand-held doc-style photography.

When the surprise finally explodes, it seems almost callous and offensive.

Traitor" is well-acted, well-shot, and it tears along at a brisk clip. Although the idea of a man trapped between two warring cultures is a potentially rich notion, the movie doesn't leave you with much that's very deep or interesting, beyond the ideas that today's world politics are a complex snarl and that seemingly good people can do monstrous things.

It's a shame, because Cheadle is one actor who's really up to the task of giving us something memorable or blowing us away.

"Traitor"

Rating: 2½ stars

Starring: Don Cheadle, Jeff Daniels and Guy Pearce

Directed by: Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Other: An Overture Films release. Rated PG-13 for violence, language. 114 minutes.