Review of Golden Door (2006) by Nalina M — 18 Mar 2008

What a bizarre little movie. I'm not even sure how to categorize it....French film (produced by)? Italian (spoken)? Magical realism? Immigrant story? Love story? Who can tell?

I didn't love it. But I didn't hate it. Most of the time, I will admit I was a trifle bewildered, but for every 10 minute stretch of weird, almost-tediousness, a moment of real interest would appear. This pattern kept me engaged enough that I really did want to find out where the movie was going. Of course, it would have been nicer if I could have been engaged all the way through, but for a lazy, day off movie...eh...I'm willing to float a bit. Whatever was going on in the movie, somehow it created an atmosphere that, in a weird way, I rather liked.

Aside from a somewhat heavy-handed treatise on US immigration policy, I would be hard pressed to say what this movie was about. Nothing really gets resolved. Character journeys are disjointed. There are random bits of magic and fantasy thrown in for no obvious reason. But somehow the movie's bizarre little world held together. I'll say this much, I want Charlotte Gainsbourg's career. So far I have seen her speak three different languages in films, in everything from indies to Jane Eyre. How she gets to have this crazy, polyglot, globe-trotting career is beyond me, but sign me up!