So, The Terminal showed up at my house and I was not excited. I’ve seen it. It was called Castaway and I have a thing right now in my life where I don’t want to drag my emotions through a meat grinder for something fictional. Hence, Steven Spielberg movies with Tom Hanks in them are off limits.
But hey, why not. I told my husband not to expect me to stay awake or even in the room.
So now I must admit that I was wrong. I liked it. It was longer than it had to be, but it was good.
From the first, they drew in enough humor to get me hooked. Like with so many other great pieces of film, it was the side characters that made it worthwhile. My favorite had to be the little Indian man who nonchalantly tells Tom Hanks that he stabbed a police officer and who gets his kicks out of watching people slip on his freshly mopped floors.
At the beginning, though, I was frustrated by the unreality of it. I didn’t buy that they couldn’t find a translator, especially when later in the film they imply that he is simply speaking a Russian dialect. NYC and no one speaks Russian? But, once again, I was overruled. You soon discover as the story unfolds, that it is more of a fairy tale where the Knight in Old World Charm wins over the hardened modern city dwellers.
I also had a hard time believing in the provincial nature of the Tom Hanks character. Not everyone from Eastern Europe is as naive and cuddly-loveable as Balki from Perfect Strangers. BUT, this is not meant to be reality and he had to be a fish out of water.
Performances were pretty good. Sanley Tucci played himself which he does well, Tom Hanks- great, loved the large looming security guy and the Indian floor mopper.
Catherine Zeta-Jones overdid it. She seemed like a caricature of a flight attendant. And the food truck driver’s accent was terrible.
All in all, enjoyable.
