Trash

City of God meets Slumdog Millionaire in director Stephen Daldry's fast-paced, exciting yet gritty tale set in Brazil. Andy Mulligan's young adult novel is given a grown-up if still easy-going tone by scriptwriter Richard Curtis, as three favela street urchins find damning evidence of political corruption on a Rio garbage dump and then must stay one step ahead of the crooked police. Discounting the story's swerves into credibility-straining coincidence, Daldry injects some welcome humour and a palpable rawness into the colourful action, which is underscored by sharp local music. The three non-professionals playing the rubbish-sifting comrades exude a believable solidarity and charismatic energy, though Brazilian star Selton Mello overdoes his role as a sadistic cop. This is a mainly Portuguese-spoken adventure, but Martin Sheen and Rooney Mara lend the production some international box-office appeal in their roles as a priest and his assistant, even if they do nothing more than go through the motions.