Stupid! Pointless! Unbelievable

Rating: 1/10 (23 December 2005)

What a waste of time! I know that Spielberg wants to try uplifting, positive "people" pictures, but this doesn't do it. The premise is so improbable. If this really have happened, the moment that someone realized Tom Hank's plight, the TV Nightly News would've been all over this. The ACLU would've represented Hank's character and he'd been let into America within days.
There's lots of CUTE moments and weird characters, you could see Spielberg trying to flex his Frank Capra fingers, but he doesn't quite get it. Spielberg is still a great visualizer, but he needs to pick better scripts. Also, Catherine Zeta Jones' character is so unbelievable, she's TOO flaky. Stanley Tucci's character is so one dimensional: he's too selfish, too cold, too vengeful.
Maybe Spielberg was trying to create a light fable about waiting in limbo and the great people you meet there. But as I watched this film, I felt that my whole life was in limbo, waiting for this film to end.