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In the dawning days of the 20th century, Italian migrants seek passage to America in The Golden Door. It's an ambitious undertaking for writer/director Emanuele Crialese, who found wide acclaim with his bittersweet drama Respiro (2003). Once again, family ties hold the story together as he follows the Mancusos on a tough Atlantic crossing. But while these passengers clock up a lot of mileage, a sketchy script leaves them floating adrift for most of the journey.

Crialese paints a superficial portrait of the Mancuso family and is especially neglectful of Salvatore (Vincenzo Amato)- ostensibly our leading man. Daydreams of a land where "rivers flow with milk" and olives grow the size of boulders fail to give him enough dimension. He remains a distant figure throughout and is almost completely ruled out of the equation when Charlotte Gainsbourg wafts into the frame halfway through. She plays Lucy, an Englishwoman determined to escape a mysterious past (which stays a mystery).

"UNREMARKABLE"

The meeting of Salvatore and Lucy is unremarkable, partly because Crialese is so keen to avoid sentimentality. Tragedy does strike, it's just that it usually befalls peripheral characters eg a random woman whose baby dies in the lower decks. For most of the voyage, Lucy gazes wistfully into the middle distance and Salvatore embellishes his daydreams of milky rivers with giant carrots that float along the current. Crialese does have a flair for composition and the scenes at Ellis Island deftly conjure a sense of the bewildering bureaucratic maze. But it's not enough to sustain the long haul. As soon as Salvatore is faced with his first genuine dilemma, the film ends! Apparently, Crialese has nothing to declare.

The Golden Door (Nuovomondo) is out in the UK on 29th June