Made with the best of intentions and engineered as awards bait, Julian Schnabel’s “Miral” timidly pleads the Palestinian cause to dangerously soporific effect. The gorgeous Indian actress Frieda Pinto of “Slumdog Millionaire” is bizarrely miscast in the title role, a young Muslim woman raised in a West Bank school for Arabs who becomes with a terrorist.

Schnabel pushed the envelope with his last film, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” but aside from a few visual flourishes he adopts the same safe, politically-correct approach Hollywood usually dealing with Arab subjects like “The Kite Runner.” Some very fine actors, including Hiam Abbass, Alexander Siddig and Omar Metwally, do the best they can with one-note roles and awkwardly-written English dialogue. And yes, Vanessa Redgrave has the inevitable cameo in a story that tries to cram decades of Israeli history into just under two hours.

The Weinstein Co. is set to release “Miral” on Dec. 1.