Sometimes I am very pleasantly surprised by a seamingly average movie, even changing my view completely during the viewing. The Golden Dream is such a movie. I am always favorable towards art that tries to go new ways or at least portray aspects of life that is not obvious to me or has aspects that is difficult to “experience” yourself.
Linked from heyuguys.comThree boys or rather two boys and a girl dressed as a boy heads out from Guatamala together in order to travel north through Mexico, to get into the USA. Their journey is mainly on board a large train “the beast”, but they repeatedly find themselves in dangerous situations and their evolving friendship is on trial several times.
What first put me off a bit, was the average performance by the three lead actors. Even if they are excused for not being trained actors and not grown ups, there were a few scenes where I found it to be just to weak or robot-like. But as the movie progressed and I got more and more drawn into the mood and the hobo like road movie, it started to feel suiting for the whole feel of the story and the contained personalities. They are strangers to each others and everything they encounter. Add to that strangers to where they came from and where they are going.
It is clear that the endstation of the journey is unimportant for the story and only works as an afterthought for your own thoughts about where your life is going. The arc of the three is not very well developed as they are very introvert most of the time... but in an overall view, it is a very honest and unpretentious delivery which really hits home for me. Some of the scenes feel emotionally impulsive just trying out things along the train track. A few scenes are lightly artistic but only to enhance a certain point, never to impress the arthouse viewer. A very pure experience, recommended view.
8/10
