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DId you know that the New York Mets play in a third world country?

It's always of interest to get a glimpse inside a third world country, or any country or culture that I will probably never get a chance to visit. Ramin Bahrani, director and co-writer of "Chop Shop" takes us into such a foreign world and culture. That it all takes place a stone's throw from Shea Stadium, in Flushing, New York, causes the viewer to consider what a third world country actually is.

Bahrani shoots it as if it were a documentary but it is a tale of fiction that centers around its star, Ale (Alejandro Polanco), a boy of about twelve who lives above a chop shop, down the street from where the New York Mets play baseball. For those of you who don't know, a chop shop is where your stolen car gets taken to be chopped up and resold as parts.

Ale is the hardest working kid in the world, or at least not far from it. He displays a drive that is impossible to sidetrack. Ale has fallen through the cracks of society, which is not that unusual. Watching Ale, while viewing the New York City skyline in the background, makes it have an impact, or at least that's the idea behind this exercise.

What keeps Ale going is his desire to buy a beat up, old lunch wagon, like the kind that is often referred to as a roach coach. He works all day and stuffs the cash into an old coffee can. Every day. Into this world walks his sixteen year-old sister, Isamar (Isamar Gonzales). Both of them are acting in their first credited roles and it is not hard to imagine that they were plucked off of the very streets that they are acting on. Isamar buys into the lunch wagon idea and gives all of the money she earns on another roach coach to her younger brother. He is running the business enterprise.

Bahrani has a point to make here and he makes it. Unfortunately, that is all he does. The first two thirds of "Chop Shop" has almost no tension or conflict. They are just doggedly at their task. This technique is very effective in documentaries but not in docudramas. I am a big fan of understatement in film but Bahrani takes it to a level where the audience feels like they are watching things happen but feeling nothing. By the time Bahrani injects tension, albeit minor, the game is over. By then you will be checking your watch to see when the flick might be ending. It's a shame, because this could have been a powerful film. "Chop Shop" ends suddenly with a quiet thud. It is very appropriate to the slow pace of everything that preceded it. The characters and audience are equally disappointed by the time the lights come up.