Berg, who has a small role in Lions for Lambs, is very good with the action sequences in The Kingdom, keeping up the suspense, and conveying the horror of homegrown terror. He also gives a fair idea of a country balancing a façade of wealth with simmering tensions beneath. But, have few doubts, this is a country viewed through the eyes of an outsider, tinged with 9/11.

There is a mocking tone to the whole documentary feel that Berg gives to the film, only partly balanced by the fact that the Saudi head of police plays as crucial a role in solving the bombing as do the Americans. But the mere suggestion that four Americans can do what a country's entire investigative team can't is preposterous.

At the same time, as others have argued, this could be the crux of Carnahan's script. His suggestion of how America does things: fly in, kill some, ship out. The FBI team includes a woman (Garner) and a man who has a Jewish grandmother, who reads Koran for dummies as night-time reading. Even a teen political student can tell you that is not the best of compositions in a country where contact with a woman who is not your wife or sister is not allowed and which is highly sceptical of America.

However, in ending the film on a more positive note from what is said to have been the original script, Berg does a cop-out. While succumbing to box-office pressures, he has also managed to stir up a fair bit of controversy, with the film being banned by several countries in West Asia, though not Saudi Arabia itself.

... contd.