As rhapsodies are wont to do, Éva Gárdos’s autobiographical first feature about her travails in coming to America from Hungary goes to extremes, portraying the best and worst of America and indulging in the best and worst of American moviemaking. In the darkest days of Soviet tyranny following the 1956 uprising, Peter (Tony Goldwyn), a freethinking publisher, and his wife, Margaret (Nastassja Kinski), flee through a minefield to freedom with older daughter Maria. Unfortunately, they had to leave infant Suzanne behind, where she is raised in the countryside by a kindly childless couple. This idyll shines throughout the film, largely through such details as a newly painted bike and an old tea set and the performance of young Kelly Endresz-Banlaki as the waiflike six year-old. Her expression of growing awareness, of terror and delight, as she’s whisked to the airport to be reunited with her parents in Los Angeles is a delight.

But that’s also when things start to go wrong, as Suzanne turns into a rebellious teen (a striking Scarlett Johansson) and mom draws the line on freedom when it comes to boys and pop culture and growing up. There’s a lot to work out here about identity, cultural conflict, and divided loyalties, but Rhapsody settles for simplistic melodrama and a glib traumatic flashback. Moral of the story: don’t lock a distraught teenage daughter in a room with a loaded shotgun.