The Big Screen

Choice cut

By Melissa Starker

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A couple of weeks ago, Under the Same Moon arrived in theaters to represent the struggle of a boy who comes to the U.S. illegally from Mexico. As writer-director Ramin Bahrani shows with Chop Shop, you don't have to look near the border to find children forced into self-sufficiency, and you don't need to pile on melodrama to give their stories impact.

Ale (Alejandro Polanco) is maybe 10 or 11 and an all-day hustler, living in a makeshift space over the Queens body shop where he works luring customers away from the other shops that line the street. He spends his off-time selling candy on the subway and bootleg DVDs. Parents are nowhere and never mentioned, but soon Ale's teenage sister Isamar (Isamar Gonzales) comes to stay with him.

Polanco lives very comfortably in his part. You've almost forgotten Ale's a little boy when he starts showing signs of desperation, the result of new stress from his sister's work habits and their hopes of starting their own business.

In his slice-of-life story, Bahrani finds an organic way to establish the gravity of the siblings' situation and still leave room for optimism. Ale is an incredibly smart, resourceful kid whose limitless potential could be lost to his circumstances, but in the end, you believe that the best parts of him will hold on.

April 24, 2008

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