A bit underrated

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2005)

Tom Hanks sure has a knack for picking the right scripts. Or perhaps Hanks makes the film. I'm not sure, but this is another Hanks success. This is the story of a foreigner who, while in mid-flight to the US, becomes a man without a country when his country falls in a revolution. He therefore does not now have a valid visa to enter the US, nor can he go home since he never actually entered the US. He is forced to live in the airport terminal. The film really doesn't give the viewer a sense of how long he's been there until, at one point, someone mentions 9 months! Hanks is befriended by nearly all of the airport workers and manages to survive very nicely through ingenuity after an awkward start. He falls in love with a flight attendant, the gorgeous Catherine Zeta-Jones. Look for very good acting from the entire cast and a well-written story and screenplay. The only weakness I saw in the film was that his character, who arrives speaking very little English, seems to learn it fairly quickly. Then we find out how long he's been there, so it's not that hard to believe after all. All in all, an enjoyable film and well worth a watch.