Trash review: Rio rubbish dump romp comes up a bit too clean

Trash, for those of you who haven't encountered the advance publicity materials, is the Brazilian Slumdog Millionaire, and, as such, comes replete with a British director (Stephen Daldry), a British screenplay (by Richard Curtis) and some non-native cast members. Adapted from a YA novel by Andy Mulligan, the film follows three street kids – Raphael (Rickson Tevis), Gardo (Eduardo Luis), and Rato (Gabriel Weinstein) – trash-pickers who subsist on what they find in Rio's rubbish dump.

When Raphael discovers a wallet containing money, a key and a series of numbers, he resists the urge to hand it over for the reward. Instead, assisted by two chums, a goodpriest (Sheen) and a charity worker (Rooney Mara), our hero stumbles into a web of systemic political and police corruption. That corruption is personified by the brutish police inspector Frederico (Selton Mello) who is soon hunting the boys down.

Beautifully shot (by Jane Eyre cinematographer Adriano Goldman) and jollied along by scampish chase scenes, Trash is a pleasing enough diversion with no clear audience. Will kids go to see a subtitled film about Brazilian urchins? Sounds unlikely.

As Slumdog as Trash is, it shares DNA with another Danny Boyle film, Millions. Like that picture, this feels like something that falls between two stools. Leaving aside caveats pertaining to cultural tourism, Curtis's no frills dialogue and basic characterisation don't quite amount to adult entertainment: Martin Sheen's good priest announces his jadedness with "Don't waste your life fighting battles that make you bitter or make you dead", before stepping up to help save the day. Selton Mello's Bad Cop alternates between menace and more menace.

Formally, the decision to include to-camera narration from the boys feels like an outrageous cheat. But it does allow us to see more of them. We know that Billy Elliot director Daldry is good with kids but that doesn't entirely account for the collective charisma of Tevis, Luis and Weinstein. They shine perhaps a little too brightly. Ultimately, Trash's dirtiest secret is that it's far too clean.