Like an airport running at peak efficiency; The Terminal glides on the consummate skills of its director and star. Having refined their collaborative chemistry on Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me if You Can; Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks mesh like the precision gears of a Rolex; turning a delicate; not-very-plausible scenario into a lovely modern-age fable (partly based on fact) that's both technically impressive and subtly moving. It's Spielberg in Capra mode; spinning the featherweight tale of Victor Navorski (Hanks; giving a finely tuned performance); an Eastern European who arrives at New York's Kennedy Airport just as his (fictional) homeland has fallen to a coup; forcing him; with no valid citizenship; to take indefinite residence in the airport's expansive International Arrivals Terminal (an astonishing full-scale set that inspires Spielberg's most elegant visual strategies). Spielberg said he made this film in part to alleviate the anguish of wartime America; and his master's touch works wonders on the occasionally mushy material; even Stanley Tucci's officious terminal director and Catherine Zeta-Jones's mixed-up flight attendant come off (respectively) as forgivable and effortlessly charming. With this much talent involved; The Terminal transcends its minor shortcomings to achieve a rare degree of cinematic grace. --Jeff Shannon