Good intentions, engaging acting and surrealistic flourishes may make for an interesting film, but not necessarily a memorable one. That's the case with Golden Door, an ode to turn-of-the-20th-century immigration that proceeds at a leisurely pace and peers into the lives of intriguing characters. But it rarely delves below the surface.
The story focuses on two very different people: Salvatore Mancuso (Vincenzo Amato), a working-class Italian who hopes for something better in America; and Lucy Reed (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a British woman of regal bearing who becomes a traveling companion to Salvatore, his two sons and his mother. Writer-director Emanuele Crialese has a stunning visual sense, but the film's symbolism most notably scenes involving giant vegetables and what appears to be an ocean of milk are straight out of Surrealism 101. And we never get a feel for the reasons his protagonists are willing to endure so much, including cramped, humiliating shipboard conditions, to reach the United States.
Fortunately, Crialese has elicited performances that go a long way toward making the trip worthwhile. Together and apart, Gainsbourg and Amato are magnetic. (In Italian and English with English subtitles.
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