Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Terminally cute

The Terminal: Another Spielberg I like (when he's good he's good, but when he's self-indulgent I just want to scream), being an extended swipe at Homeland Security disguised as a gentle comedy, and with a surprisingly poignant resolution (or lack of resolution, as it were) to the romantic subplot. As someone who lives near Heathrow and goes through periods of spending a lot of time on airplanes, and as a result quite likes airline terminals with their weird mix of connection to, and detachment from, the rest of the world, I found the setting quite enjoyable. The one thing I didn't like was the climax, where it seemed like the team was trying to ratchet up the tension unnecessarily when the movie was generally at its best when it was quiet, bittersweet and low-key (as when the protagonist finally achieves his goal for visiting New York). Also the fact that everyone had pagers and nobody had mobiles made the whole thing seem rather retro for a 2004 film.

Movie count for 2010: 14 (I know, but I've been eyeball-deep in TV series lately).