Just got back from The Terminal tonight! It's a fantastic movie, very well done, has a lot of comedy in it, but has a nice solid story line. Very much worth the money to see it on the bigscreen.
For those of you who dont know, The Terminal is the latest movie from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks; loosely based on the true story of airport refugee Merhan Karimi Nessari, who was expelled from Iran in the late seventies for his protests against the shah. In August 1988 he found himself a refugee in Charles De Gaulle airport after his refugee documention was stolen in a mugging in Belgium. To date, he is still a resident of the airport, despite his now legally being able to enter into any European country. In 1999 he received an international travel card along with a French residency card. He still refuses to leave the airport, because he insists that his documents list his country of origin as Britain and not Iran. Many believe that he has become so used to life in the airport that he simply can't tear himself away.
The movie has little to do with this true story, aside from a foreign refugee living in an airport for a long period of time. It's a fantastic, and plausible story, extremely well done. The motivation behind Tom Hanks character (Viktor Navorski) turns out to be a moving idea.
For those into it, the movie is quite Spielbergian, in its most classic sense.
3 thumbs up.