Of course, Cheadle and his collaborators on Traitor might argue that a ripped-from-the-headlines movie deserves to be judged on different grounds, such as the number of pertinent issues it crams into a relatively compact (under two hours) running time. Traitor does touch on the bloody reality behind euphemisms such as "collateral damage"; the hypocrisy of high-level Islamic militants who savor the decadent Western culture they aim to blow to smithereens; the insensitivity of Americans to the complexity of Islamic culture.
Costa-Gavras (Z, State of Siege) made political thrillers that are still considered great because they were as skillful dramatically as they were incisive politically. When a director can't fulfill his obligations to his genre, he doesn't win the confidence he needs to lead an audience into higher terrain. In Traitor, Nachmanoff flubs such obligatory scenes as the man on the run seeking a meeting with an old girlfriend. Samir hunches over on a park bench but stares at her so obviously he might as well be jumping up and down and screaming, "Here I am! It's me!"
