BY BOB STRAUSS >FILM CRITIC

That old foreign film staple, the poor but plucky little kid story, gets mixed with illegal-immigrant movie tropes in "Under the Same Moon."

You've seen this movie countless times, whether completely in another language ("Central Station") or in Spanglish (well, "Spanglish"). But it's done pretty well here, sacrificing mom, reluctant protector and all.

Terrific acting from a mostly Mexican cast (with a note-perfect cameo from America Ferrera as a U.S. college student gone coyote for tuition money), plus seasoned TV writer Ligiah Villalobos' determination to pad her predictable screenplay with peculiar bits of business and behavior, keep this thing from getting mired in its own bathos.

That said, it's still the kind of movie that's adored at film festivals by people who like to think they're too sophisticated to be easily manipulated but enjoy it when they are.

Telenovela queen Kate del Castillo plays Rosario, who's been living on the low-down in East L.A. and doing maid work on the Westside for four years, all to send money home to her beloved 9-year-old Carlitos ("Legend of Zorro's" Adrian Alonso). She calls Mexico every Sunday from a corner phone booth, and Carlitos, who lives with his coughing grandmother, complains about how much he misses her.

If you hadn't guessed, Abuelita is not long for this world, and when she fails to wake up one morning, little Carlitos buys a ride across the border.

Where, of course, everything that can go wrong does. Crucial cash falls unnoticed out of a backpack, hinky gringos terrorize the kid, Migra agents seem to be everywhere. But there are always good souls willing to help Carlitos on his way from Texas to L.A., and one who isn't so nice - Enrique, a lone drifter played with solid, selfish indifference by Mexican comedy sensation Eugenio Derbez - ends up being the boy's most dedicated champion. Yeah, we were really surprised by that development.

Meanwhile, Rosario copes with the usual array of desperate housewife employers and decent guys she's too distracted about her son to realize could give her the decent, legal life she longs for. The two stories build toward a nail-biting crescendo of missed connections ... if you actually believe this thing could have an unhappy ending, that is.

Director Patricia Riggen loves her characters to death, and she wants all of us to bask in their wonderfulness, too. Despite that, Carlitos, Rosario, Enrique and most of the others come off as real folks more often than not. Los Tigres del Norte make a humorous cameo as, essentially, themselves, and our own El Cucuy can be heard on background radio dissing Gov. Schwarzenegger.

Bob Strauss (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss@dailynews.com

review>

UNDER THE SAME MOON

>PG-13: children in peril, language.

>Starring: Adrian Alonso, Kate del Castillo, Eugenio Derbez, America Ferrera.

>Director: Patricia Riggen.

>Running time: 1 hr. 49 min.

>Playing: Areawide.

>In a nutshell: Cliched but well-staged story of a little Mexican boy crossing the border on his own to try to find his mother in L.A. In English and Spanish with English subtitles.