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Soon, Samir is planning bombings, one of which he carries out himself, at the American Embassy in Nice, France. Two FBI agents are trying to prevent that from happening. Agent Archer (Neal McDonough) is the dead-eyed hard case of the "kill them all" school. His partner, Agent Clayton (Guy Pearce), is the son of a preacher and studied Arabic cultures in college, and he is the role model for the movie’s "fair and balanced" views. Horn travels to Italy, France, Canada and America, doing the bidding of his new friends -- building bombs and teaching others to use them. But, Clayton is always a step or two behind him.

There are some scenes that groan with half-digested themes, but Mr. Cheadle’s performance gives “Traitor” a sense of ethical gravity and real intrigue. That's no surprise; he's a fantastic actor. His Samir is mysterious precisely because he seems, at every turn, utterly sincere, honest even at his moments of greatest duplicity.

The story, by Yet Nachmanoff and Steve Martin - yes, the wild-and-crazy Steve Martin - is gripping and interestingly plotted. Amid the bombings and prison breaks, the story moves around a lot — from Yemen to Canada, from Chicago to Marseille — and involves a lot of interesting minor characters- among them Jeff Daniels as a sneaky Capitol Hill pol and Aly Khan as a Saville Row jihadist.