‘The Kingdom’

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What’s the matter, buddy? Tired of Middle East thrillers that make you work too hard trying to understand a situation that defies comprehension?

If so, welcome to "The Kingdom."

A kick-butt action thriller that takes a stab — but only one or two — at addressing complex international issues, "The Kingdom" would pack more of a punch if it could decide what kind of movie it really wants to be.

As it stands now, it’s a reasonably entertaining one, enlivened by a cast of award-winning veterans, Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper among them, and directed with hammer-down intensity by actor-turned-director Peter Berg ("The Rundown," "Friday Night Lights").

Just don’t go expecting anything remotely resembling piercing insight.

Except for its extended, spectacularly explosive action sequences, "The Kingdom" could qualify as a supersize episode of "CSI: Riyadh," following a team of FBI investigators into Saudi Arabia’s capital to investigate a terrorist bombing that killed scores of Americans — including one of their own.

Not that U.S. officials want the FBI investigating anything, especially not in the insular realm of Saudi Arabia, where local officials would prefer to deal with the situation in their own way.

Defying orders from on high, however, agent Ronald Fleury (Foxx) puts together his own team to investigate — and, perhaps, avenge — the deaths.

There’s explosives expert Grant Sykes (Cooper), the grizzled father figure, and smarty-pants intelligence analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman), whose flip quips don’t quite cover up his fear. As for forensics examiner Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), she’s not interested in covering up at all — at least not in the way the strict Saudis would prefer.

Speaking of the Saudis, they’re not at all pleased to have American interlopers horning in on their investigative territory — and aren’t shy about alerting a U.S. State Department bureaucrat ("Entourage’s" Jeremy Piven, obnoxious as ever) to that effect.

Instead, Fleury and his team grudgingly agree to a five-day schedule to investigate the bombing — under the supervision of a dogged Saudi cop, Col. Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom, who co-starred in the Oscar-nominated 2005 Palestinian drama "Paradise Now").

It’s a setup almost as old as the movies themselves: the local officer resenting the presence of a visiting interloper. That is, until they develop mutual respect and discover they have more than a few things in common.

The screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan (who also scripted a future topical war-on-terror thriller, November’s "Lions for Lambs") doesn’t spend nearly enough time exploring the relationship that develops between Fleury and Al Ghazi. But at least this particular cultural exchange gives "The Kingdom" another dimension beyond stuff blowing up real good.

Yet that’s undeniably what "The Kingdom" does best, especially during a grueling 20-minute climax that combines a breakneck freeway chase, a kidnapping and an extended shootout involving a terrorist mastermind — and his extended family.

In this sequence, and many others, Berg employs a pseudo-documentary visual style, heavy on the jittery hand-held camera moves, that’s designed to put us in the middle of the mayhem. Up to a point, it achieves the desired effect, but we’ve seen it so often (most recently in "A Mighty Heart") that the device seems permanently mired in the swamp of cinematic cliché.

And, while we’re on the subject of cinematic clichés, how about Garner as the lone female on the FBI team? Not that Garner can’t handle the action; all those years on "Alias" count for something. But in a city where head-to-toe coverings are the norm for women, it seems ridiculous to watch Garner striding about in a form-fitting T-shirt, head held high — and totally uncovered.

Then again, we’re not supposed to think that much. Not when we can concentrate on the dependable Cooper adding deft character detail to his underwritten part — or Foxx keeping it real with an appealing combination of brash humor and no-nonsense authority.

Good as they are, however, it’s Barhom — in a role light-years away from the jet-setting hustler he played in the 2006 Israeli comedy-drama "The Syrian Bride" — who delivers "The Kingdom’s" most subtle, heartfelt performance. He ably conveys the endless dilemmas of an honest, honorable cop trying to do his job despite pressures from Islamic extremists on one side and the Saudi royal family on the other.

As the man in the middle, being squeezed from both sides, Barhom emerges as "The Kingdom’s" most valuable, most complex, player. And some of us can’t help thinking how much more interesting "The Kingdom" would be if he were its central player, rather than the sidekick to his American counterpart.