There was a time when Richard Curtis wrote witty, profound stuff like Blackadder. Those days are long gone. Ever since he had a megahit with Four Weddings and a Funeral he has become simply unbearable, a pompous windbag with nothing to say. Love Actually and The Boat that Rocked were throwaway rubbish, morally dubious and pretentious in the extreme. Trash is his and the equally pious Daldry’s go at cracking third world problems, and it’s worthy, dull and utterly without charm. It’s clearly meant to be Daldry’s Slumdog Millionaire, but here’s some news Slumdog has already been made, with proper actors and a great script. This is not much more than a likewarm ripoff.
The plot is the usual stuff. Three boys live in the slums of Rio de Janiero, scrambling around in rubbish trying to find a bit of cash or jewellery. When they find a wallet containing a letter, the key to a railway locker and an id card of a missing legal activist who has opposed a government plan, the boys know it’s important and set off to find “justice” via a jailed freedom fighter.
When Daldry introduced his film at a screening in London he revealed that when it is played in Brazil the audience fall about laughing. Presumably the reason is the people there are so fed up with being portrayed as plucky urchins scrambling around in poverty they find his film funny. The comparisons with Slumdog are inevitable there are scenes at a railway station, in the rubbish-strewn slums and there is even the bad cop not past torturing children. In Slumdog this was played by the great Irfan Khan, here it is played by an actor with no threat whatsoever and little screen presence.
Scene after scene make absolutely no sense, particularly when the kids break into the grounds of a rich man’s house and are discovered by the groundsman. Instead of hurling them out on their ear he lets them wander around gathering evidence and clues to solve the “mystery”.
It’s no surprise that Trash has received few nominations at award season, in the BAFTAs, Oscars or even Bifas. The photography is dull and the editing poor with no sense of pace or threat to the young boys. It’s a cynical film, an attempt to pull at the heartstrings thanks to the performances of three young boys who have never acted before.
They are entirely blameless, Jesuita Barbosa in particular has huge natural charm, but they can and will make better projects than this. Martin Sheen looks suitably baffled at being asked to play a priest helping out in the slums, and Rooney Mara has some depth in a thankless role as the boys’ presumably unpaid teacher.
If Daldry and Curtis want to bring attention to the slums of Rio they would do better by working for Oxfam or Save the Children, rather than churning out worthy, dull fare like this.
Overall verdict: A cynical attempt to cash in on Slumdog Millionaire which falls flat on just about every level.
Reviewer: Mike Martin