Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Pity the poor immigrant in this thoughtfully detailed drama.

The Golden Door

(PG-13; 117 minutes; in Italian with English subtitles)

In most movies about immigrants to America, the story starts with their arrival on our shores.

Not this time. “The Golden Door” (titled “Nuovomondo,” or “New World” in its native Italy) follows a family of incredibly poor, unschooled Sicilians from their hardscrabble home village to Ellis Island, the New York offshore entry point for European newcomers. Set in the early 20th century, this quietly detailed work from writer-director Emanuele Crialese is about the mental duress and physical challenge of leaving the only home one has ever known and venturing into the unknown.

The central character is Salvatore Mancuso (Vincenzo Amato), a peasant steeped in poverty (at 37, he doesn’t even own shoes) and ignorance (he thinks joke photos of giant vegetables are real). It’s not easy to make the break from his old life, but he eventually works up the courage to bring his grandmother, son and brother — along with two young women seeking marriage to “rich” Americans — on a tortuous trek across Sicily to a seaport and a cramped trans-Atlantic ship.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, the only “name” in the cast, plays a mysterious Englishwoman who is the only non-Italian passenger on board. Her relationship to Salvatore is tenuous but revealing.

Not much really happens here, but that doesn’t diminish the movie’s appeal. That’s because the characters are depicted in gentle, sympathetic detail. We begin to share their confusion and wonderment as they embark on a quest for citizenship in a strange land.

Looking for an antidote to the summertime diet of explosions, shootouts and animated effects? Then settle in with this modest meditation set a century ago, when most of our immigrants came here legally despite the bureaucratic tangle they had to negotiate to stay.

We give “The Golden Door” a B.

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