Now Playing: Traitor

What with no TV and no Internet in the house, I find the temptation of a movie theatre across the street to be too much for me. Last night, I went to see Traitor (starring Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce and Said Taghmaoui), a movie I honestly had no idea as to what the plot was, who was in it or even the genre to which it belonged.

Well. That was wonderful surprise.

Plot: The story follows Samir, a Sudanese-born American who has a talent for building bombs. I won't say anything else, because, really, the slow unravelling of Samir's character is what makes this movie tick. A bit slow to start, it revs right up - getting to a point where, upon the death of a character, I actually started muttering "oh no, oh no" to myself. It's a story with clear-cut bad guys, shaded in spectrum of grey that leaves us feeling sympathy and hatred for all the people we never expected to like or even admire.

The acting is excellent - Cheadle is his usual amazing self (this seems to be an apt followup to Hotel Rwanda and Crash), showing some real linguistic versatility. Guy Pearce was a surprisingly capable foil to Cheadle's character. But the man who stole the show for me was Taghmaoui: he delivered a subtly nuanced and intricately faceted performance that simply catapulted off the screen. He, alone, was worth the price of admission. A well-deserved 4 out of 5 stars.

Welcome Awards season, poppets. And it's not even September yet.