Quirky, but eminently entertaining if you allow it to be . . .

Rating: 8/10 (6 October 2004)

The Terminal 8/10
This is a movie you'll love or errr . . . feel left a bit cold by - so maybe a few notes to help you decide which . . . ?
The story is of a man stranded at an airport, his papers invalid for entry or exit, and ending up living there for a while (all this is based on a true story). The difficulty is getting a handle on it. Is it serious drama? Light romantic comedy? Deliberate slapstick? Is it meant to be realistic or not? If these questions are likely to plague you and make you unable to settle and enjoy The Terminal, it's maybe not the movie for you. On the other hand, imagine it was a musical - you'd have all these elements and no-one would really care. Perhaps the film would have been more successful as a musical even - as audiences we have a happy acceptance that includes a very wide suspension of disbelief when the people we are watching suddenly feel the need to break into song and dance - we are there to be entertained after all; and if you avoid pigeon-holing the film you might find it a very enjoyable experience indeed.
Tom Hanks is superbly cast in the lead role. His home country (somewhere in Eastern Europe probably) has undergone a coup whilst he has been in flight. Consequently all documentation (visas, passports) from the country have been suspended - his papers are not valid for entry to the USA and neither can he be forcibly sent home. The puzzlement and isolation of a man who speaks little or no English and has no idea what is happening to him is poignantly portrayed. But rather than lead us into consideration of serious issues that might be raised, director Steven Spielberg drops to a minor key to develop a romantic comedy between Hanks and air-hostess Catherine Zeta-Jones. As an audience we have to let go of the desire to see it as a serious drama and just have fun, though with serious issues in the background. Spielberg, not my favourite director, almost redeems himself from his habitually apologetic political correctness over an incident involving a Russian (Where Hanks is brought in as a translator) who is trying to bring medicines in for his dying parent without proper paperwork. Realising that no paperwork is needed if the medicines are needed for veterinary purposes, Hanks feigns a mistranslation to get the Russian to say they are for his goat. In the face the heartless chief of security, it looks like a swipe at bureaucracy, suggesting the system cares more about goats than people - but this is quickly dispelled when another staff person says that America is after all, built on compassion.
The original story is much closer to home - an Iranian refugee, Merhan Nasseri, landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport France in 1988 after being denied entry into the UK because his passport and United Nations refugee card had been stolen. He was not allowed into France and he did not want to return to Iran (his home country) - he was fleeing as a political refugee. He ended up living in Terminal One of the airport for more than 16 years. (He's now been granted permission to either enter France or return to his own country but he instead chooses to carry on living in the terminal.
The film is professionally made, deftly crafting schmaltz with top acting, and a theme that, if not original, at least hasn't been done to death. It's unusualness is probably its biggest downfall - it wants to be mainstream but doesn't conveniently fit into a category. It also goes on for rather a long time - at over two hours there creeps in a feeling that you've been stranded watching his (however interesting) plight long enough and it's about time he got the girl and went out to celebrate. Personally I didn't get bored - only a little sad - not just from the soppy tear-jerker aspects - but from the feeling that more people should enjoy this movie than probably will let themselves.