Great old-fashioned spy thriller action with a solid backdrop of religious tension amidst the dilemmas of war. A solid plot and good performances make this entertainment that makes the viewer think
Don Cheadle’s enactment of a tortured loyalist in Jeffrey Nachmanoff’s and Steve Martin’s outstanding screenplay is flat-out the best spy-thriller entertainment of the summer, and probably the whole year.
Don Cheadle (“Hotel Rwanda,” “Crash”) plays Samir Horn, a fervent worshipper of Islam who cuts himself into the deal of a lifetime and then gets more than he could have imagined. FBI man Roy Clayton, played by Guy Pierce (“Memento,” “L.A. Confidential”), is the perfect foil for Horn. Roy Clayton’s old man was a Southern Baptist minister who fought against the Klu Klux Klan. As artificial as this might sound, the Clayton character’s kind of intensity is what it takes to match the ferocious strength of Horn’s Islamic devotion.
But Horn is more complex than a simple religious devotee. He is Colonel Kurtz of “Apocalypse Now,” the believer in peace who happens to be very good at war. He is an outlaw who uses his western training to undermine the West. He uses Islam, a religion of peace, to wage war on Christianity.
When Horn is busted by Clayton he meets his soul mate, Omar (Saïd Taghmaoui---“The Kite Runner”) in the last place an American would ever want to be, an Islamic prison. The Nachmanoff/Martin version of Islamic prison has a particularly nasty schoolyard bully who decides to make Horn his special torture victim. When Horn shows his stuff we realize that there is a little James Bond in what appears to be true-blue Moslem. Soul mate Omar turns out to be another bin Laden, although younger and more punk-rockish than the real thing. Sort of a James Caan Sonny son-of-godfather.
Through the remarkable character development of Horn and Clayton we see them change roles from good guys to bad guys and then back again. The pacing of the plot is near perfection as the stakes mount higher and higher and idealistic Samir learns slowly, and with excruciating pain, that the ideals he has pledged to uphold will, in fact, be paid for with the blood of innocent persons. The three ideals of war with blood, war without blood and no war with no blood come crashing together with, well, you know the rest.
Therein lies the fines screenplay that separates this film from the ordinary spy thriller and gives Cheadle his chance of a lifetime to show his chops. His character is both a villain and a hero at the same time and, try as he might, he can’t find a way out. Nor can we.
Although Jeffrey Nachmanoff’s directing is not a big part of the success of this film, his and Steve Martin’s screenplay is absolutely first rate. Is it the best fictional depiction of Islam by non-Islamics that has come along in some time. The film shows excellent research in both the cultural aspects of Islamic/Christian conflict and commonality as well as simple good old fashion espionage common sense. Although there are a few lapses in credibility in the communication tricks and gimmicks, they are very few.
The technical treatment of the ins-and-outs of improvised explosive devices (the infamous IEDs of Iraq) is almost too accurate to believe in places, as actual triggering techniques and explosive materials are discussed. Best of all, the bloodiest of businesses, suicide bombing, is presented with the occasional throw-away gag. Ex-Ranger Cheadle to bin Laden terrorist look-alike: “Not only will I sell you the explosives and triggers, but I will show you how to not blow yourself up. By mistake, that is.” Steve Martin must have written that one.
The respect shown for the audience through the intricate research and the precisely depicted characters and places provides a marvelous backdrop for the spot-on performances of the cast. The cinematography is simple enough but we are so curious to see what will happen next and what the place will look like where it happens that we don’t care. Simple is good.
In the end we are all faced with the ultimate dilemma of any war: is there any end that justifies the means?
Release: August 27, 2008 
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