I'd Hoped For Forrest Gump

Rating: 8/10 (25 June 2004)

The Terminal is a good movie, but only because Tom Hanks is so bloody entertaining when he has a character to play whom you fall in love with at first sight. In this case, that's Viktor Navorski.
Catherine Z-J is not particularly believable as a United Air Lines flight attendant who can't make up her mind. In that regard, the characters are a bit like Forrest and Jenny, but you could like Jenny as a person. You definitely don't like Amelia.
In the first half of the movie, Stanley Tucci was mostly likable, but then he grew confused about who he wanted to be, too.
The standout "goofball" in the movie was Kumar Pallana, who played Gupta, a lovable Indian janitor who had a perverse sense of humor, a surprising talent or two, and a strong sense of doing the right thing.
I guess what bothered me the most about the movie was that only one person (Amelia) ever asked Viktor (Tom) why he wanted to come to New York City. His reason for being there was something that one of his buddies could easily have taken care of during the months he spent living at JFK. In fact, once you find out why he was there, you have to ask yourself whether he needed to be there at all.
Hanks - 10; the movie itself - 6; averaged - I give it an 8.