[2][3] Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (Frank Langella) and author Édouard de Laboulaye (Jean-Pierre Cassel) agree to create a monument to present to the United States on behalf of the French people.
Enlisted to help with its construction are immigrant coppersmith Jacque Marchant (Chris Sarandon), shop owner Seamus Reilly (George Kennedy), and assistant Robert Johnson (LeVar Burton).
Marchant falls in love with poet Emma Lazarus (Carrie Fisher), who supplies the sonnet "The New Colossus" for the base of the statue.
Jeff Jarvis of People called it "as pretentious as a high school sophomore trying to act like a college freshman.
"[5] Clifford Terry of the Chicago Tribune described it as "turgid as well as ludicrous, drawing upon the device of meshing fictional and historical characters.