Much Better Than They Say!

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2006)

For a long time I avoided this film, quite irrationally reacting against the early hype in the way we all do sometimes. Then one day I saw it on cable when there was nothing else to watch, so I gave it a go. There is a pleasant joy about being proved wrong about a film, about the wry realisation that you have been stupid enough to delay enjoying a really interesting motion picture experience.
What happens is that Hanks and Spielberg do what they have done countless times before - individually and collaboratively - and draw you in. All they need is the ability to create believable characters in an interesting real-life situation and a setting we all recognise. Sounds simple. It's not. But this film plays like a masterclass in how to do it.
There is a lightness of touch about the film, exemplified by the incidental music and by Hanks' winning charm as the lead character who stays relentlessly positive in the face of the kind of un-feeling bureaucratic intransigence that is designed to wear people like him down. Despite all the odds, he never doubts that he is going to get into New York City, and so neither do we. And that spirit of belief that benign destiny will prevail slowly infects not only the rest of the airport, but the audience as well. To that extent, it's a 'feel good' movie.
There are some lovely individual touches too (watch out for when Viktor gets X-rayed - and then photo-copied!), and Stanley Tucci's turn as the uptight, officious airport security manager becomes a wonderful comic creation, without ever losing authenticity. But there are serious themes here too, and they are not smothered in saccharine - except perhaps in the last 20 minutes (when let's face it, it's acceptable). Spielberg's class allows the film to effortlessly dip between the tragi-serious, the laughably mundane, and OK the downright silly at times, without ever losing its pace or the logic of its simple plot.
There's not much more to say about this film without spoiling it. You don't need a deep understanding of international politics to understand it, just an interest in human beings and how they behave in reaction to the situations and people around them.
Watch it. You'll like it. And you'll never look at an airport terminal in quite the same way again.