Starring Martin Henderson, Charlize Theron, and Woody Harrelson. Rated PG. Opens Friday, October 17, at the Cinemark Tinseltown

The street warfare depicted in Battle in Seattle effectively shut down World Trade Organization meetings on the eve of the new millennium and carried important, if ambiguous, messages about hard issues facing humanity in this century.

The gritty-looking film, shot last year in Seattle and Vancouver, recalls still-pressing problems subsequently obscured by an attack on the WTO. Unfortunately, its message is undermined by contrived and poorly written plot mechanics that better belong in a cheapo disaster movie than in the tense docudrama it clearly wants to be—and could have been, without the added melodrama.

Okay, here’s the thing: when you’ve already got sincere veteran protesters, wild-eyed anarchists, ginned-up riot police, agents provocateurs, city and state officials caught between conflicting public goods, and WTO participants wondering where their conference has gone—all of whom are based on real people—why on earth would you also need a routine love story, a crumbling marriage, and a crisis of conscience for a previously callous newsreader?

These fictionalized elements come courtesy of Irish actor-turned-director Stuart Townsend, who also wrote the amateurish screenplay. Michelle Rodriguez and New Zealander Martin Henderson play committed organizers caught up in something bigger than politics, darn it, and André Benjamin is an upbeat animal-rights activist with no smoochin’ in sight. Woody Harrelson is a self-doubting cop whose very pregnant wife (Charlize Theron) gets caught up in protests that quickly get out of hand. Connie Nielsen is the aforementioned news personality, and her scenes are the flattest of all.

Much better is Ray Liotta as a stand-in for troubled Seattle mayor Paul Schell, and Rade Serbedzija and Isaach De Bankolé add needed depth as delegates who see their planet-saving messages swallowed up by the chaos. While watching this well-meaning mess of a movie, viewers—especially sympathetic ones—will know just how they felt.