The Terminal (2004)

Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Tom Hanks, Stanley Tucci, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Barry Shabaka Henley, Diego Luna, Kumar Pallana, Zoë Saldaña, Chi McBride, Eddie Jones. [PG-13]

Sentimental Spielberg comedy conceptually inspired by the true story of an Iranian refugee who lived in Charles de Gaulle Airport for almost two decades. Here, it’s a man without a country named Viktor Navorski (Hanks), who gets stuck at New York City’s JFK when his fictional homeland of Krakozhia falls victim to a coup d’état mid-flight, so he sets up provisional residence inside the terminal. The sort of movie that glides along courtesy of mildly humorous moments and nimble movement and pace, but has so little substance or resonance in its featherweight storytelling that it’s hard to forgive the film’s overlength and trivial detours. Takes such a “cutesy” approach to so many of the sub-plots (matchmaker games between employees Luna and Saldaña, the simultaneously far-fetched and pointless wooing of flight attendant Zeta-Jones, etc.) that the conflict between Viktor and a needlessly hostile airport bureaucrat (Tucci) feels like overcompensation on the part of the filmmakers to manufacture pathos and rooting interest. It’s easier to forgive some rather shameless product placement (in real life or in multimedia, you’ve never seen anyone enjoy Burger King more than this plucky refugee) than it is to embrace the corny and condescending contrivances found in the last twenty minutes, right down to someone dramatically stopping a plane by physically running in front of it! Those with a high tolerance for schmaltz may enjoy it, all others will be lucky to remember having ever watched it in the first place. Curiously, the giant interior airport set built for the shoot resembles Düsseldorf Airport, not JFK.

49/100