‘Traitor’ Cuts to the Chase

When Paul Greengrass’s “United 93” and Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” were released in 2006, many in the press wondered aloud whether the country was ready for the Hollywood fictionalization of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Fortunately, neither of those films was guilty of the sort of grotesque manipulation and exploitation that are commonplace in today’s movie business. Fast-forward to two years later, and we have writer-director Jeffrey Nachmanoff’s “Traitor.” The film, which reaches screens Wednesday, doesn’t use any real-life events as its basis, but it certainly lifts mainstay keywords such as terrorism, suicide bombings, and Islamic extremism right out of newspaper headlines.