Trash (M). Director: Stephen Daldry. Starring: Rickson Tevez, Eduardo Luis, Gabriel Weinstein, Rooney Mara, Martin Sheen, Wagner Moura, Selton Mello. 108 minutes
One of the set pieces of this Brazilian-British co-production sees Raphael, Gardo and Rato — three Rio de Janeiro street kids — plotting a kind of bait-and-switch, to obtain the next major clue in the life-and-death riddle they are trying to solve. As the leader of the three, Raphael (Tevez), lays out the intricacies of the plan, director Stephen Daldry cuts back and forth between their meeting and the attempt itself, as mistakes and accidents conspire to nearly derail the entire scheme.
Trash is a kind of realist fairytale set among the streets and lives of some of the world's most downtrodden. Raphael and Gardo (Luis) spend their days, with other slum-dwellers, scouring mountainous trash heaps for useful items. One day Raphael discovers a wallet, the contents of which soon have them — and their friend, Rato (Weinstein) — on the trail of an invaluable treasure, and on the run from dangerous men: none more dangerous than corrupt cop Frederico (Mello).
The above scene is pertinent because it encapsulates just about everything that is great about Trash. The juxtaposition of careful planning with flawed execution creates both humour and tension, as a white-knuckle chase scene eventuates. It is typical of a film that is seriously compelling and entertaining from go to whoa. The seasoned British pair of Daldry and screenwriter Richard Curtis have done a fine job of adapting and executing Andy Mulligan's acclaimed young adult novel.
The scene also captures a juxtaposition that exists within the boys themselves: of the steel and resourcefulness that must come from living on the streets of one of the world's most dangerous cities, with the fragility and artlessness that are hallmarks of youth. The three dynamic 'non-actors' who portray them are a joy to watch, in this scene and every other; Sheen, as a cantankerous priest, and Mara, as an NGO worker, may lend the film a Hollywood pedigree, but the boys are its undoubted stars.
It is unfortunate, albeit unavoidable, that the film pins the story to a recognisable (albeit unnamed) location. Mulligan has said of his novel (which was inspired by his experiences not in South America but in the Philippines) that he kept the location oblique because 'I was anxious that the book was never seen as an attack on one country. Corruption and child-exploitation … exist (or have