Forrest Gump does Borat...

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2004)

The impact of Hanks' brauvura comic performance may be lessened for British viewers by his character's similarities to minor TV star Borat.
That aside, The Terminal is pleasant light entertainment; marred by a disastrous piece of casting in Catherine Zeta-Jones as 'love interest.' Spielberg lights her like a true diva of the screen- her beauty deserves something much more epic than this breezy piece of fluff. Her scenes appear to be taken from a wholly separate project- she is completely out of place in a film otherwise populated almost entirely by quaintly lovable bottom-feeders. The best of these is the irrepresible Gupta.
'Lost In Translation' did dislocation far more believably than this. Spielberg tries to imbue his hero with the innocence and mysticism of Forrest Gump; but is hampered by the confines of the script and location conceit. Unlike Forrest, Victor is not destined to enter the lexicon.
It is a fairy story, which is only tolerable because none of the characters have any resemblance to real people. In this respect it is blissfully escapist. For a film which aims much lower- and achieves infinitely more- I refer again to 'Translation.'