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Dir. Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Rating: 6.6 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
Try as you might, it's neigh impossible to dislike Don Cheadle in a film. There's a kind honesty to his countenance, a soft-spoken integrity that seemingly seeps through his pores. And it is exactly this quality that director Jeffrey Nachmanoff is banking on in this FBI/Terrorist thriller. Cheadle plays a man named Samir, whose own father was killed by a terrorist bomb when he was 12. As an adult, it appears that he's become a mercenary for hire, selling bombs and fuses to the highest bidder, despite his deep religious convictions. His terrorist dealings ultimately get him arrested in Yemen and thrown in jail, where he refuses to divulge any information to the two FBI agents (Guy Pierce and Neal McDonough) assigned to interrogate him. In jail, Samir befriends Omar (Saïd Taghmaoui), a devout Muslim who has big plans for taking out the U.S. oppressors. Sprung free, Samir and Omar hatch a plan with other terrorist bigwigs to bomb the states. The small genius in the film, as it's set up, is as the FBI is tracking down Samir and keeping him under surveillance, we're pretty much forced to do the same thing. Is it possible for a man like Samir, devout, generous and principled, to actually become a terrorist against his own people? If the film's suggestion does less to really dig at our perceptions of right/wrong and religious fanaticism as it could have, at least the filmmakers have the guts to put the argument on the table. This is a spy thriller with a long -- and mostly absorbing -- agenda: Islamist fundamentalism, U.S. hypocrisy, the judgment of God, and the ability of people to be led down the wrong path, precisely as they are most convinced of the contrary. With that in mind, Cheadle is a perfect choice as Samir: The strength of the film is its ability to keep you guessing about the true intentions of its protagonist -- even as it's making him the emotional fulcrum of the narrative. The film dutifully follows the FBI agents as they race to put the pieces of the puzzle together (a bit too adeptly by the end), but our attention is rarely diverted from Cheadle's conflicted Samir, daring us not to sympathize with him even as he prepares for a mass bombing of innocent people. Ultimately, less problematic than last year's haunting Day Night Day Night, the film nevertheless manages to put us all in the uncomfortable position of having to condemn, even as we think we begin to understand.
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