Brazil. Condemned to live in the favelas among thousands of others, Raphael and his friend Grado pick through huge piles of trash at the local dump in search of treasure. Their dream appears to come true when they discover a wallet full of bills and paper. But their lives change in a different way when the police comes after them, paid by a dishonest politician. With the help of an American priest, a UN employee, and their friend Rato, they investigate why their newly found treasure is so valuable…

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In the space of four films Stephen Daldry has passed from prodigy to bête noire. Shooting to stardom with the phenomenal success of Billy Elliot which brought him the first of three Oscar nominations for best director, he followed up with The Hours starring Nicole Kidman and The Reader starring Kate Winslet, who both won the Best Actress Oscar. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, calibrated to follow the same path, marked the end of his run with dismal silence. Favelas, adapted from the book by Andy Mulligan, is a new direction for Daldry. Shot in Portuguese and English with unknown stars boosted by Americans in supporting roles, Daldry’s camera provides an energy previously not associated with him. Unfortunately, the screenplay is by Richard Curtis, the director of Love Actually, who serves up a predictable and therefore unconvincing story. The movie, which will inevitably be compared to Slumdog Millionaire and City of God, is too full of noble values to transmit any kind of reality.