"Under the Same Moon" is a sympathetic but syrupy portrait of Mexicans and other hardworking outsiders who long to live in the United States as legal citizens.

It will remind you of the privileges and luck of birth and citizenship, but it plucks every available heartstring, starting with the death of the grandmother who has been watching 9-year-old Carlitos (Adrian Alonso) since his mother crossed the border four years earlier.

Mom Rosario (Kate del Castillo) shares a garage apartment in East L.A. with another undocumented worker, juggles two jobs for wealthy Angelenos, calls her son every Sunday morning without fail, sends him $300 a month and dreams of being reunited with the sweet boy who is growing up without her.

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'Under the Same Moon'

2 1/2 stars = Average
Ratings explained

• Starring: Adrian Alonso and Kate del Castillo.
• Rating: PG-13 for some mature thematic elements. In English and Spanish with subtitles.
• Web site: Under the Same Moon

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When Carlitos' grandmother dies, the boy tracks down a visiting American who had offered to smuggle infants across the border. He makes it to Texas but loses his guides and his cash, which opens him up to the cruelty and kindness of strangers.

The film, opening today at the Manor and AMC-Loews, follows Carlitos' dogged efforts to get to L.A., even as Rosario rethinks her life in the States. She reconsiders a suitor while Carlitos latches on to a reluctant guardian.

Director Patricia Riggen and writer Ligiah Villalobos are Mexican natives with obvious sympathy for the immigrants who harvest tomatoes or clean houses or put other women's children to bed at night. It's a subject worthy of dramatic exploration -- as movies such as "Fast Food Nation," "Babel" and "El Norte" variously proved -- but they place Carlitos into some situations that are nonsensical or unrealistic.

Would first-time smugglers really be so naive? Would a diner, even one run by a sympathetic American Indian, put a 9-year-old boy to work? True, it drives home an earlier point that Americans took advantage of the Indians, then the slaves and now the Mexicans, but it's silly on so many levels.

The story toggles between plucky Carlitos, who finds fairy godmothers and fathers in unlikely places, and Rosario, a good-hearted mother who is at the mercy of her employers, one of whom treats her rudely and unfairly because she can.

It wastes no opportunity to hammer home its points, from its use of a song called "Superman Es Ilegal" to chatter about Austrian-born Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's opposition to undocumented immigrants obtaining driver's licenses.

Alonso, who just turned 14 and played Antonio Banderas' son in "The Legend of Zorro," is a terrific actor who cries or charms with conviction and has the air of a real kid. He drives a strong ensemble that includes del Castillo and Eugenio Derbez and Gabriel Porras as two of the men in their lives, and cameo player America Ferrera as a cog in the crossing wheel.

"Under the Same Moon" humanizes the plight of Mexican immigrants, but, in the end, the message may be stronger than the movie.