Like Matt Damon's Jason Bourne, Don Cheadle's Samir Horn is an
extremely reluctant, traumatized action hero: The opening scene is a
flashback of a young Horn watching his father get killed in a Jeep
explosion. He would probably object to even being called an action
hero, although his ninja moves and steady supply of beautiful leather
jackets give him away. In that deeply American way, he's just a guy
doing what he's got to do. But Horn might have the honor of being the first Muslim action hero
in an American big budget film. "Traitor" tells the story of former
Army Special Forces explosives expert Horn, a devout Muslim and
suspected terrorist, who is hunted by FBI man Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce
of "Memento," who looks like a gaunt Brad Pitt) in a multinational
chase. They first meet when police in Yemen, where Clayton and his
partner happen to be, pick up an uncooperative Horn. The evidence
mounts that Horn, who had been living in Chicago, has gone to the dark
side. Writer-director Jeffrey Nachmanoff got the inspiration for the film
from none other than executive producer Steve Martin, who apparently
began talking about "what if" scenarios a few years ago. This is
Nachmanoff's second full-length feature, his first big-budget one, and
he shows an excellent understanding of pacing. The narrative is
bifurcated, moving between Clayton's hunt and Horn's dangerous ascent
up the ranks of an al Qaeda-like terrorist group that he joins in a
Yemen prison, where he befriends a young follower named Omar (Saïd
Taghmaoui from "The Kite Runner"). Although the action is broken up by occasional conversations about
the nature of belief, the morality of terrorism and factoids about
Islam (did you know that the literal translation of the word "Islam" is
"submission"?), the film only accessorizes with deep thoughts. Horn,
from the start, is the moral compass of the film, risking death to give
a man food in a Yemeni prison yard, and broad hints as to his real
identity are dropped from the get-go. Like any number of Western heroes and comic book good guys, Horn is
a man born into his position of hero. It chose him. Cheadle plays Horn
with hangdog eyes and a dour face; he takes no joy from his physical
prowess, bomb-making ability and stylish wardrobe. Among "The Dark
Knight," the Bourne trilogy and this, one longs for another silly Bond
movie. At least Bond gets the girl every now and then, and smiles. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM