The film is partially inspired by a true story.

The Terminal is a 2004 film starring Tom Hanks (Image: DreamWorks)

A “charming” film inspired by a true story is leaving Netflix soon. The Terminal is a 2004 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stanley Tucci.

The film is about an Eastern European man who is stuck in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport terminal after being denied entry to the United States, but unable to return to his native country due to a military coup. The story is partially inspired by the true story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal 1 at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in France from 1988 to 2006. After finishing Catch Me If You Can (2002), Spielberg decided to direct The Terminal because he wanted to make a film “that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world”. As no suitable airport was willing to provide its facilities, an entire working set was built inside a large hangar at the LA/Palmdale Regional Airport.

The Terminal is based on a true story of an Iranian refugee who lived in a French airport (Image: DreamWorks)

The customs hall, offices and most of the film’s exterior shots were filmed at the Montreal–Mirabel International Airport in Quebec, Canada.

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 61% of 206 sampled critics gave The Terminal positive reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “The Terminal transcends its flaws through the sheer virtue of its crowd-pleasing message and a typically solid star turn from Tom Hanks.”

Michael Wilmington from the Chicago Tribune said, “[The film] takes Spielberg into realms he’s rarely travelled before.” A. O. Scott of The New York Times said Hanks’ performance brought a lot to the film.

Martin Liebman of Blu-ray.com considers the film as “quintessential cinema”, praising it for being “a down-to-earth, honest, hopeful, funny, moving, lightly romantic, and dramatically relevant film that embodies the term ‘movie magic’ in every scene.”

One reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes called The Terminal a “quite charming film”, with another saying it can “take to the verge of ridiculous”.

The Terminal is leaving Netflix on January 31, according to NewOnNetflix.