Switching Gears at the Terminal

Rating: Null/10 (17 June 2004)

Owing more to the pace and softer shading of Catch Me If You Can than the dark side of Minority Report or Artificial Intelligence, Steven Spielberg switches gears to a simple, humorous tale of love and redemption in The Terminal. Since lightweight Spielberg is better than almost anything out there, this should give perspective to an enchanting tale inspired by a real life incident.
Tom Hanks plays a foreign visitor on a journey to New York City who gets stopped at JFK Airport when his country ceases to exist amid a revolution. Through a `Catch-22', he is stranded at the airport unable to enter the U.S. and prevented from returning to his country. This limbo lasts more than just a few days and grows into weeks and finally months.
What to do in a strange land unable to understand the language and how to survive? These are some of the interesting questions that are dealt with along the way. We meet a myriad of characters at the airport who befriend Hanks' character including a hysterical turn by Kumar Pallana (A Wes Anderson discovery) as a cantankerous janitor, a glamorous Catherine Zeta-Jones as an air attendant who captures Hanks' interest and ardor, and a wonderful performance by Stanley Tucci as a menacing head of airport security.
The production is first class all the way as one would expect from a Spielberg film. Every actor/actress no matter how small the role is memorable. How unfortunate that the gold standard means almost missing John Williams touching score which melds so seamlessly to the storyline.

When I said lightweight, this is much more than a one note movie. It starts slowly at a measured pace and builds layers subtly while developing a swell of pathos and storyline. No doubt this will be a hit for the Spielberg/Hanks tandem which is developing into a very dependable source of thoughtful, mass entertainment. In the end, this film is about facing one's purpose and meaning, and experiencing and reveling in life despite any obvious limitations. To those who say this is boring or doesn't measure up to past Spielberg efforts, I say, `lighten up and smell the roses.'