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movie review - The Terminal

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is a tale about a fellow who gets trapped in an airport terminal when his passport is stripped from him due to a coup in his homeland. It is loosely based on the story of an Iranian national whose passport was revoked by his own government in the 70's, and who found himself trapped in Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris after an attempt to fly to the UK following the theft of his refugee papers.

In the real-life case the trapped man's situation is now impossible to solve. The sixteen years the poor fellow has spent in the terminal have taken a considerable toll on his mental state, and he now refuses to leave the airport despite having been given French immigration papers. This takes a bit from the tale of the happy time that Tom Hanks has in the airport, earning money as a construction worker, wooing a beautiful airline stewardess, and helping his friends.

Another weakness is the bizarre romantic subplot with the stewardess. The characters have no real chemistry between them, and her character is so off-putting (a character played by Catherine Zeta-Jones is supposed to have spent 20+ years pining for a series of married men?) that her eventual reversion to type and flight from the stranded Hanks doesn't register. She bolts, and you're left with the reaction of, "meh".

Where this movie does work is as a charming tale of the main character bumbling about and getting through his crisis. If they'd left out Zeta-Jones completely, this would have been a stronger movie. Which is exactly what I thought of her turn in The Haunting, in which she proved an unnecessary distraction from the real story, which involved Lili Taylor.

Not recommended.