Under the Same Moon  is a sweet but forgettable togetherness yarn, poised ever-so-lightly on the knife edge of America's immigration debate. That the movie manages not to bloody itself speaks both to its twinkle-toed charm and meager dramatic weight.

To be sure, first-time director Patricia Riggen and screenwriter Ligliah Villalobos aren't trying to drastically alter public opinion about illegal immigration – anymore than, say, An American Tail was designed to improve the lot of animated mice. As Carlitos, a south-of-the-border scamp who embarks on a thousand-mile journey to join his undocumented migrant mom (Latin tabloid regular Kate del Castillo) in Los Angeles, child actor Adrian Alonso (The Mask of Zorro) is too plucky, too saucer-eyed and ultimately too impervious to cut deeply as a political/polemic device. “My mother says to look to the moon when I miss her,” he tells a confidante, “because it's the same one she sees.” Aww. And with that line, Carlitos conjures an impenetrable schmaltz force-field around himself that the filmmakers only half-heartedly test.

Not that they aren't tempted. Having slipped over the border, Carlitos is briefly taken captive by a junkie and is THIS close to joining the South Texas underage sex trade before a kind passer-by miraculously intervenes. With his unerring ability to bring out the best in people, Carlitos has more in common with Haley Joel Osment's pint-sized messiah in Pay It Forward (2000) than the distressed peasant siblings in Gregory Nava's El Norte (1983). No sewer-crawling. Light peril only.

In lieu of spectacle, the filmmakers put a premium on recognition, filling the margins of the story with the sort of human scenery well known to the first-generation Mexican-American target audience. There's the crusty but lovable coyote (Maria Rojo) operating under the guise of a legitimate visa business; the rich, white housefrau (Jacqueline Voltaire) who cruelly stiffs Carlito's mom on her housekeeping bill, as if to write off the pain of her own unfulfilled life; and the American-born, no-habla-espanol Latina (“Ugly Betty” star America Ferrera, in a bit role) who offers to sneak Carlito across the border for tuition money.

The movie takes an even lighter, if not unpleasant, turn when Carlitos latches onto a gruff itinerant laborer (Mexican heartthrob Eugenio Derbez) and proceeds to chip through his rough, kid-hating veneer. It's a proven, Chaplinesque comic trope, and Derbez – with his sure timing and wry, roguish humanity – nearly steals the movie from his young co-star. In short, Under the Same Moon – in subtitles, save those scenes involving English-speaking characters – is as controversy-proof as any movie about a border-flouting Mexican family could possibly be. (Who else finds that disappointing?)


Under the Same Moon
Stars: Kate del Castillo, Eugenio Derbez, Adrian Alonso, America Ferrera
Behind the scenes: Directed by Patricia Riggen, from a script by Ligiah Villalobos
Rated: PG-13 (some mature thematic elements)
Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes
Grade: C