The casting director must have had a field day putting this lot together – imagine a film with Mike Myers and Simon Pegg without a single moment of humor. Well, it’s not like these guys can’t do drama, but I have to ask if you’re using the tools you’ve got to their best advantage. And this is exactly how I feel about Terminal – a film with tools not being used to their best advantage.
Technically, Terminal is film noir, oooooo, which essentially means 1) it’s dark, 2) confusing, and 3) crime-filled. There are only about ten people in this thing and six of them are Margot Robbie, who shows up in every scene with new makeup and a costume change. There also aren’t a whole lot of sets in this film which is good, because the lighting bill was clearly stretched as is.
The film opens with Margot Robbie in a Mia Wallace disguise asking her boss in a church confessional if she can be the head hitter in his playpen of assassins. She offers to kill all the others to prove it and boss, hidden from screen, accepts. Meanwhile, in another film, Simon Pegg awaits a train in an abandoned Terminal, and all-night janitor Mike Myers tells him to go wait in a café. The only other person in the café is Annie (Robbie), who quickly assumes every role otherwise missing: waitress, cook, companion, confidant, counselor, and love interest.
Forgetting the depression of Simon Pegg, the film shows Margot Robbie in a hotel room torturing a guy we presume to be a hitman. Meanwhile, two other hitmen (Dexter Fletcher and Max Irons) have an cash-stuffed envelope leading them to an Alice in Wonderland themed strip club where they’ll meet somebody strange who will give them orders to do something . The lack of specifics here is aggravating, but somehow it’s all made better when we realize Margot Robbie is not only their contact, but she’s working the stripper pole as well. Isn’t that nice?
The noir genre is, in general, noted by dark sets and deliberately confusing plots. These elements are euphemistically referred to as “mystery.” Terminal withheld a great deal of information from the viewer to set up this world of five sets and no people. Doncha think it’s kinda sad when there’s only five people in a film and they’re all gonna die? As vixen, femme fatale, and Flo from Progressive, Margot Robbie gets plenty of opportunity to show what she can do on camera. Yet none of that seems worth the price of admission, because it’s all so cynical. Robbie’s alter egos all seem phony facades of genuine people. After a generous amount of deliberate confusion, the film is spoiling for the big reveal when all will be known. And while the film didn’t disappoint in volume and clarity of disclosure, the content of the head-spinning information dump was more like an eye-rolling than an epiphany. Terminal was noir for the sake of noir and an acting workshop featuring Margot Robbie; if that does it for you, fantastic. I, however, am disappointed for the wastes of Pegg and Myers.
Mystery ever delights in noir trademark
A whodunit with each ingénue and mob shark
The lack-of-light reveals
A secret the genre conceals
Without the murder, you’re just lost in the dark
Not Rated, 95 Minutes
Director: Vaughn Stein
Writer: Vaughn Stein
Genre: The Margot showcase
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People gaga for Margot Robbie
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The easily addled
