Le Terminal

La première moitié est fantastique. L'humour des épisodes est mignon et cultivé, et la position impressionnante (jusque-là inédite) du talentueux acteur Tom Hanks en fait un film de détente simple mais irrésistible, sans la moindre faille de beauté. Cependant, avec l'arrivée du méchant, de l'histoire d'amour et du niveau de réflexion avec la canette, cette beauté s'estompe et le film glisse vers un standard familial banal, sous lequel sont généralement signés Chris Columbus et cie. "Catch Me if You Can" était plus cohérent, précis et unique. (05/10/2004)

Avec ce film et la situation de confinement actuelle, je paie ici l'une de mes dettes cinématographiques. Puis, avec la démarche thématique et métaphorique présentée, le choix se révèle opportun. De plus, j'ai vu circuler sur Facebook une blague disant que comme Tom Hanks avait sauvé le soldat Ryan, contracté le SIDA, surmonté le Vietnam, passé deux ans en zone de transit, etc., s'il attrapait le coronavirus, on serait tous dans la merde… Il s'agit donc d'un film sur le confinement et l'idée que l'on peut survivre à tout et même améliorer l'expérience de la situation. Hormis le fait que c'est une fois de plus filmé de manière horriblement « américaine », j'ai passé un bon moment et me suis laissé bercer par le charme de Zoe Saldana et le jeu toujours impeccable de Stanley Tucci. (21/03/2020)

Very nice thing. The first half, with the brilliantly confused Hanks and his delicious accent, is very funny and brisk, the love story with the stewardess (the really beautiful Zeta-Jones) is pleasant, the non-clichéd climax goes against the established templates – I had imagined something else, but I’m glad Spielberg (and the screenwriter) surprised me. Even the ending was within acceptable limits, there was no violent playing on emotions (so typical of Spielberg). Also a huge compliment to the production team who built a fully functional airport hall especially for this film, hats off to them. A small surprise to me was the poor financial response from American audiences, could the Hanks-Spielberg star pairing no longer be a sure bet? Together with overseas earnings, Terminal just about paid for itself. PS: A message for golfista: you're wrong, kid. Considering that about 50 percent of the revenue goes to the cinema operators, with 218 million earnings, that's about a hundred million for DreamWorks, so as I said – Spielberg probably wasn't too happy. (13/01/2005)

It's the little things that make this film great and in a way brilliant. Unfortunately, that only applies to the first half. Once the main character gets jaded, the plot starts to get more American and isn't as entertaining. Victor Navorski's character certainly has a lot in common with Forrest Gump. I really enjoyed his good-heartedness and ingenuity. And given the situation he's in, there are a few elements from Cast Away as well. It's no fun crashing at an airport... unless Tom Hanks is the one crashing there. 4 stars. (30/11/2011)

This movie just skims the surface and never goes into depth. The screenplay isn’t one of the best ever, the whole storyline involving Catherine is pointless, but still... Spielberg is too good a director and Hanks too good an actor for this movie to be merely mediocre. It’s more like a pleasant relax movie that gets to you; it’s much better in the first “short stories" part than in the second part where it is too focused on the love story and obligations from the past. (27/02/2005)