"Framing John DeLorean" takes on a juicy subject that has somehow eluded Hollywood for decades: the life of a calmly maniacal automaker who got caught up in a cocaine-trafficking sting during the 1980s as he chased his dream of producing the ultimate sports car.

Like DeLorean, this documentary is not afraid to take risks. Its most audacious gambit is not only to use famous actors in its re-enactment scenes, but also to let performers like Alec Baldwin (as DeLorean) and Morena Baccarin (DeLorean's wife, Cristina Ferrare) offer insight into their characters. This movie-within-the-movie format is interesting and fun, even if it sometimes throws the overall proceedings off-balance.

"Framing" actually operates on three levels: a straightforward retelling of DeLorean's rise and fall; which is solid; a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the reenactments, which is often brilliant, and the reenactments themselves, which curiously fall flat.

One of the best moments occurs in the makeup room when Baldwin is being transformed into the enigmatic DeLorean, and the actor reveals his approach to playing the character on-screen. The trouble is, unmasking the actors doesn't allow us to suspend our disbelief in the re-enactment scenes, which are nicely shot but prove to be less revelatory than the actors' observations.

Still, there is plenty here to keep us interested. DeLorean's move to open an automobile plant in violence-plagued Northern Ireland is fascinating, as is the grainy video of DeLorean talking to government agents before being busted on charges of cocaine trafficking. As the "Framing" part of the title implies, the filmmaking team of Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce ("The Art of the Steal") don't seem to think much of the government's case against the carmaker, who died in 2005.

The observations of DeLorean's children — particularly his downtrodden son — also leave a strong impression.

But by the time the credits roll, we don't achieve a much deeper sense of who DeLorean really was — only a better understanding of why this complicated figure continues to befuddle screenwriters.

DeLorean probably would have preferred it that way.