Silly movie, despite its good intentions

Rating: 6/10 (28 June 2007)

Despite that this movie has a heartwarming undertone, my cynical side just can't cope with this ultra-sweet film that tries to deliver a true message on a wrong way.
The protagonist, a refugee being stuck on an airport due to inhumane bureaucracy, is a totally clichéd version of a real immigrant. He doesn't have anything in common with anyone really wanting to build up a life in the United States. And that's my biggest problem with this movie, the total lack of any realism in the main character played by Tom Hanks. At the end we see his true reason to go to the U.S.A. and believe me if I say that it's an anti-climax of epic proportions to see the silly reason of why this guy has to endure all this pain to set foot on American soil. Add up the completely senseless love-story around Catharina Zeta-Jones, as always being too artificial with her stunning beauty but failure to act natural, and you get a very silly movie.
But like I said in my introduction, it has an important message to give to its audience. I also believe that immigrants build up America, and the rest of the western world for that matter, and that they should be cherished for their efforts instead of despised as happens too often. In Holland we recently had a political wave that tried to tune down Immigracy. It created a lot of sad stories of people that build up a living in our country but had to leave due to inhumane bureaucrats. This being said, I must add that positive stories about immigrants are important to tell. Spielberg had a good point by making this movie, but he should have made it more conform the truth...