Review of The Terminal (2004) by Ivie D — 10 Mar 2010

This flight never really took off.

An eastern immigrant, played by Tom Hanks, finds himself stranded in JFK airport because of a war that has just started in his native land, which can no longer be declared a country, and must take up temporary residence there.

To start, The Terminal seemed a bit off from the get-go. It's almost as if one could sense this was going to try too hard to reach out to the audience. Supposedly based on a true story, the fact alone that Hank's character hails from a fictional nation, called Krakozhia, already put this film in the wrong, off-beat direction. It starts by rushing straight into the plot without warning. 10 minutes into the movie, we already know the general premise of it. One thing that bothered me specifically in the beginning, was the overly heavy accent Hanks puts on for this role. I like Tom Hanks for the most part as an actor, but it was a bit overkill. Also, his character,Viktor, doesn't understand a word of english, along with simple questions,responding yes to everything, but 5 minutes later, in a different situation, he can pick up on english conversation decently. We also do not find out, or are even introduced to a reason why Viktor(Hanks)is in NY in the first place,until the last 25 minutes of the film, which although was a farfetched reasoning,gave it a little bit of substance. Still, this all seemed to be too little too late.

Casting also seemed a bit off. Stanley Tucci, although acting his role quite well, seems to be too cheery an actor to have portraying the strong, stubborn role of Frank Dixon, chief of international operations or security of JFK. Catherine Zeta-Jones, plays the role of Amelia Warren, a flight attendant, who gets involved romatically with Viktor(Hanks). Even though Catherine looked really hot, I mean, acted well,this portion of the movie also seems a bit farfetched. Where one thinks a love story will start to arise, it clearly just seems to act as filler, because someone realized this movie needed more, being about a guy living in an airport terminal. That was just one of the small sub-plots used for filler, I need not to get into them all.

There were some nice qualities to The Terminal though. Although being a bit boring, your attention is kept a little solely due to the warm quirkiness of Hank's character. I must say, it is entertaining to see Tom Hanks play a character that has absolutely no idea what they are doing. The Terminal is a bit Gump-esque, in this sense,just not nearly as well put together and lifetimes away from being as good. I understand the themes the film is trying to present, as they appear to be quite obvious; be tolerable to others, they will help you in the end, the American dream; but, once again, it turns to the upsurd with Viktor becoming the airport hero to all.

The directing of Spielberg helps the film. There is a very nice use of light in many scenes, which helps to give the film that warm, connective feeling. Also, there are some really nice tracking and wide shots given to show a good look of Hanks and the surrounding terminal.

To sum it up, The Terminal is a warm, smiled filled movie that is unfortunately held hostage by a bland overall watch and an inadequate premise. Sub-par Spielberg.

5.5/10.