A journalist turned CIA informant (Liev Schreiber) interviews a politicized Muslim teacher (Riz Ahmed) suspected of involvement in the abduction of another academic at his university in this ambitious, crowded, at times uneven, often riveting adaptation of the popular 2007 novel directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding). Most of the film centers on the events which led the teacher from the Mideast to a high-powered job as an executive in the United States and then home again, angry and conflicted, including a troubled relationship with a photographer (Kate Hudson in a rare dramatic role) and an increased atmosphere of xenophobia in the city after 9/11.

It is not hard to tell this is an adaptation of the novel: the road from the page to the screen is at times traversed inexpertly as the film goes in and out of focus and tries to render graceful a framing device which plays instead as forced. And a few scenes are too gaudily engineered to upset and wrench, including an absurd moment when the protagonist's American girlfriend is mystified why is he not pleased to discover her latest show blends the iconography of September 11th with intimate images and phrases from their relationship. Despite numerous flaws, however, the core story of a foreign national falling in love with America, with the American Dream, and then slowly becoming disillusioned as a victim of ignorance and the march of history holds an enormous, stinging fascination. And Ahmed, a magnetic and regal British actor and hip-hop artist audiences may recognize from Four Lions and the recent Closed Circuit, delivers a powerful performance in the title role, perfectly capturing the intense longings and contradictions which come to define the man he plays. He anchors and elevates the film even when it threatens to derail.

B