Monica Sorelle's warm but uninspiring debut film is about a Haitian American who is hired to demolish houses in his own neighborhood.

There are many jobs in America that make the world a worse place to live. Most people stay in them. Filmmaker Monica Sorelle tries to explain how that bitter pill is swallowed in her debut film, “Mountains,” which follows Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), a Haitian laborer who becomes complicit in the gentrification of his own neighborhood.

After a modest festival run, the Tribeca find gets a limited premiere in New York and L.A., but not before hitting theaters in Miami — the film’s setting and Sorelle’s hometown. That hometown pride is evident throughout “Mountains,” which carries an undeniable verisimilitude and compassion. But the story proves less insightful: too cautious to delve into its protagonist’s troubled psyche, softening the film’s worthy political anxieties into sympathetic messages that feel bland and preordained.

Like many American immigrants, gentle giant Xavier aspires to provide a better life for his family. His wife, Esperance (Sheila Anozier), is a passionate seamstress and a fantastic cook. She amuses Xavier’s self-aggrandizing ramblings about saving for a bigger house, though she seems content enough with their current abode. Their son, Junior (Chris Renois), pursues something else. While his parents chat in Haitian Creole, Junior speaks mostly English, especially when trying to explain why he keeps leaving the house during dinner — a source of increasing anxiety and disappointment for his father.