The Traitor
| Release Date: January 31, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJan 29, 2020
Bellocchio’s approach to the story is at once coolly objective — the movie is part biopic, part courtroom procedural — and almost feverishly intense. He has a historian’s analytical detachment, a novelist’s compassion for his characters and a citizen’s outrage at the cruelty and corruption that have festered in his country for so long. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsJan 31, 2020
The sprawling scope of The Traitor is a big part of its dryly funny (though never in a ha-ha kind of way) appeal, and that takes some getting used to. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiam LaceyFeb 6, 2020
The Traitor is a pleasure to watch. Working with cinematographer Vladan Radovic, Bellocchio blends sweeping camera work and flurries of action with painterly lighting and often ironic musical cues. The story itself is somewhat over-stuffed — the time-jumping narrative (Bellochio and three other writers are credited) and an onscreen counter of murder victims — but this is still a welcome chance to see a great old school European auteur at work. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleMar 11, 2020
For many films, all of this would be represented as little more than an onscreen epilogue. In the hands of Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio, here adapting the story of the real Buscetta, it’s the jumping-off point for a story of betrayal, modernity, and one man’s struggles with a lifetime of trauma. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 19, 2020
The Traitor is a coolly epic appraisal of a country’s struggle with its dark side rather than a mobbed-up melodrama. If it’s “Godfather” clichés you want, there’s always “The Godfather.” Read full review
75
Washington PostPat PaduaFeb 5, 2020
If The Traitor proves anything, it’s that an 80-year-old filmmaker can still pounce. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 29, 2020
If you want family values, Marco Bellocchio is your man, though they may not be what you expect. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungMay 24, 2019
Its most valuable asset is actor Pierfrancesco Favino. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJan 28, 2020
The screenplay — written by Bellocchio in collaboration with several others — has no particular point of view regarding Buscetta, seeming content merely to take us step by step through his two decades as an informant. Read full review
67
The PlaylistBradley WarrenMay 24, 2019
A handsome production and ambitious in scale, the impact of The Traitor is muted by the familiarity of its well-worn tropes. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJake ColeSep 5, 2019
It’s at its best when showing how gangsters undermine their lofty notions of nobility with displays of narcissism. Read full review
60
CineVueMatthew AndersonAug 4, 2020
The moral ambiguities and questions of legacy, friendship, family and integrity in Marco Bellochio’s The Traitor are the strongest points of an ambitious, punishing addition to a long line of films to explore the inner workings of the Cosa Nostra. Read full review
60
VarietyJay WeissbergMay 24, 2019
It’s clearly made by a master filmmaker questioning the nature of repentance, and as such is far from superficial; and yet while it never loses our attention, it also doesn’t deliver much of a punch. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 24, 2019
The film digs into the minutiae, giving off an unmistakable air of expertise, but the screenplay ends up being a collection of footnotes and intriguing digressions without necessarily feeling like an authoritative handling of this sprawling material. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 24, 2019
The film has the authoritative air of official history: sometimes brash, sometimes stolid, sometimes with flashes of inspiration and sometimes with long stretches of courtroom dialogue. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 24, 2019
There’s just no real perspective on Buscetta, which separates this brisk but uninvolving history lesson from the truly great mob movies. I was a little bored with it, too, honestly. Read full review
50
Film ThreatHunter LanierFeb 26, 2020
It has a television movie quality to it as if it’s a dramatization of a newspaper article, rather than something cinematic. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 17, 2020
The Traitor is important Italian Cosa Nostra history rendered in boring, leisurely strokes. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Aparita BhandariFeb 6, 2020
The Traitor is an exploration of betrayal, according to Bellocchio. He seems to be asking, can a man truly change the course of his life, or is it just a pretense? Unfortunately, this account of Buscetta’s story doesn’t really give us any answers. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinJan 30, 2020
It ultimately seems as if there was a more economical, propulsive and entertaining way for a master such as Bellocchio to recount this explosive and pivotal chapter of Mafia history. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 24, 2019
Once The Traitor earns its title, the movie is overwhelmed by legal intrigue and mafia infighting, and flattened into a repetitive and somewhat impenetrable courtroom drama. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonFeb 5, 2020
The biggest betrayal of The Traitor is its crime against the usually compelling Mafia movie genre. This is an offer you can refuse. Read full review
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