The Terminal

All Star Rating
Acting (9)
Direction (8)
Drama (8)
Entertainment (7)
Humour (7)
Originality (8)
Storyline (7)
Watch-ability (7)
Overall (7)
Comedy (7)
ASR TOTAL 75

Review
Loosely based on a true life story about Merhan Karimi Nasseri, a man without country, trapped by his lack of papers in Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, since 26 August 1988.

The name has changed from Merhan Nasseri to Viktor Navorski (played by Tom Hanks), and instead of Charles De Gaulle Airport its based at JFK International in New York. The rest of the movie is probably entirely fictional.

Though dubbed as a romantic comedy, The Terminal is neither especially funny, or overly romantic. That being said it is highly entertaining. It’s a ‘nice’ movie, it wont go down in your cinema all time greats, but it will make you smile and give the odd romantic sigh.

Surprisingly Hanks strong accent wasn’t annoying to me personally, and after a few minutes of listening I even bought into it. His strong screen presence and commanding acting skills do come to the forefront on occasion as his character struggles through this state of limbo, exile, and constant torment from the airport official Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci).

The Angelic Catherine Zeta Jones does a reasonable job of supporting Hanks as the flighty air hostess Amelia, and other than being pleasing to the eye, does portray her character to an acceptable standard, if not unrealistically being attracted to Viktor Navorski.

The lack of eventful material to base a two hour movie in an airport does call for some original direction from Steven Spielberg, but nothing the worlds most famous director cant handle with ease.

All in all The Terminal is a decent film, a popcorn flick that will keep you entertained at least for the duration of the movie.