"The Terminal" - So Close
Category: Movies...
Posted Friday, June 18, 2004 at 08:39 PM [GMT-6]

"The Terminal" comes within 20 minutes of being a very good movie. Unlike some critics (Joe Morgenstern at the Wall Street Journal comes to mind) who think the whole thing is a mess, I enjoyed the film as long as it was telling the story.

Unfortunately, when it came time to end the story, it fell flat on its face, collapsing under the weight of trying to bring logical conclusions to too many illogical storylines. An overbearingly sappy musical score seemed to be an attempt to cover up the fact that the movie ran out of gas before it ran out of film.

When it's good, "The Terminal" is very entertaining, even winsome. There were a number of laugh-out-loud scenes, and a few genuinely touching ones. Tom Hanks is, well, Tom Hanks with a Russian accent, and he's pretty much flawless throughout. Catherine Zeta-Jones, on the other hand, is completely wasted playing a one-dimensional, almost unlikable character.

To be honest, when I first saw the trailer several months back, the concept didn't appeal to me at all. But, on the strength of the director's and performers' reps, I decided to give it a chance. It's ironic that the concept held up its end of the bargain better than the director.