The Terminal

Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kumar Pallana, and Tom Hanks in The Terminal 

The second movie I saw on Friday night was The Terminal. At first, we thought that the long line outside the theater door was for The Terminal, but in fact it was for Fahrenheith 9/11. The crowd was rather sparse for The Terminal. That's a shame, because it's a fine film.

Tom Hanks is a citizen of an Eastern European nation that suffers a coup while he's in transit to the US. When he arrives, his passport and visa are invalid. He's trapped in the terminal.

It sounds like there wouldn't be much room to tell a story, but there is. To tell much more would spoil it. Let's just cut to the chase and say that Tom Hanks is brilliant. He's joined the Meryl Streep category of actors who can do an accent so effortlessly that you forget that they don't always talk like that.

He creates a character that you'll miss when the movie is over. With the language barrier as part of the story, it's a challenging role for him that calls for a lot of body language. I was reminded of Jacques Tati as he raced luggage carts through the terminal in order to make some much needed cash. I see now that Ebert has made that comparison as well. Others have mentioned Chaplin. What's important to know here is that this is a character that we fall in love with. It feels like a real person that we want to know.