When the press notes tell you that a neophyte local director (Gil Ponce) quit his job, sold his house, and cashed in his Boeing stock to make an uplifting tale about the power of love, faith, and family in the slums of Manila, a jaundiced critic can only respond that, well, Boeing stock doesn’t look so valuable anymore, does it? Though the company gets a few plugs as an American aviation engineer (Brent David Fraser) tells his 8-year-old son (Carlos Lacana) about their new life waiting in Seattle. An inconvenient typhoon separates the kid and his Filipino mother before their flight, however, and soon he’s wandering the streets among dirty-faced, glue-sniffing urchins, corrupt cops, and some truly frightening traffic. Neorealism this ain’t. Nor is Tall as Trees on par with the recent Iranian cinema that makes such good use of child actors. (This film is in English, not all of it easy to understand.) Lacana and his wee company are most comfortable when simply behaving—shining shoes, running from thugs, and cavorting on the beach. Dialogue is more of a chore. As for the acting, the adults don’t come off much better. Still, notwithstanding a Manila-pop musical sequence (“Use your coconut!/To make your dreams come true!”), the melodrama is more socially grounded than it needs to be. Ponce doesn’t romanticize or lecture us about slum life; it just is what it is. In one truthful moment, when a teenage drug dealer beats our hero beside the highway and threatens to push him into traffic, not one car stops to intervene.