GOLDEN DOOR [PG-13]
While too many storytellers rely too heavily on the mythical status of New York’s Ellis Island as a gateway for immigrants (which handled up to 70% of them at one time), writer-director Emanuele Crialese (Respiro) makes it into a living, breathing character unto itself. He tells beautifully the story of the Italian Mancuso clan as they sell everything they own in order to emigrate to what they hope will be a better life in early 20th century America. Salvatore (Vincenzo Amato) and his sons, Angelo (Francesco Casisa) and the mute Pietro (Filippo Pucillo) are like a restrained, old country Marx Brothers, finding quiet wonder in all aspects of their journey. Most fun is the fantasy with which Crialese infuses this affair, with the Mancusos dreaming of a country in which giant chicken and vegetables abound, and money actually does grow on trees. One recurrent sequence has the family, and eventually, all of Ellis Island, swimming in a river of milk, and it is a lovely dream. While Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Science Of Sleep) is sweet as the mysterious and determined Englishwoman whom Salvatore becomes protective, it is Aurora Quattrocchi (Malèna) as the Mancusos’ charmingly superstitious elderly mother who steals this visually striking, well-acted show. –David Meyer