MovieChat Forums > Traitor (2008) Discussion > Missed opportunity? [SERIOUS SPOILERS]

Missed opportunity? [SERIOUS SPOILERS]

posted 10 years ago by Manton29
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I watched the film last night and while I commend the film's boldness in featuring a (Hollywood's first?) devoutly Moslem action hero - the always good Cheadle - I think it was a mistake to go for the twist that this protagonist appeared to be a terrorist and/or pure opportunist but was in fact working heroically in the interest of the US and it's citizens rather than waging war against them. This meant that for the first 1/3(?) of the film we were 'outside of his thoughts' and not really inside anyone else's, and consequently less invested in the characters/film. I don't think the 'twist' (which I figured out before the reveal in any case) was worth that detachment.

Also: waste of Jeff Daniels' character to have him killed off after marginal screen time and without having done much; too little interaction between Cheadle and Pierce; the girlfriend sub-plot was underdeveloped; there was an awkward intercutting in which data was being passed to both agents and Nathir, which only later sort of makes sense (mole?) but at the time is quite confusing and distracting; and the almost-always-moving camera made me seasick and the little speed ups are a little TV/music promo style for me - tacky. Other stuff too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trolling, I'd just like to know if others saw these things as fine and maybe even assets to the film or if they are widely seen as defects. Overall, not a bad bit of entertainment but I feel many bad choices were made along the way.

If to stand pat means to resist evil then, yes, neighbour, we wish to stand pat.

[–] RynoII 10 years ago

I saw these things as fine. Even though the girlfriend and Daniels had little screentime, I felt that their scenes carried a lot of weight and were still very effective. The only problem I may have had was they didn't explain how exactly they found the mole, but they could have and I missed it.

On a first viewing, I thought that this was a near perfect thriller actually, and very underrated in my opinion. It's definitely the best thriller genre of movie that deals with Muslim terrorists in my opinion. The speed ups I may agree with you on though, but at least they weren't as speedy as so many other movies and music videos in comparison.