Review of The Terminal (2004) by David P — 21 Mar 2010

"The Terminal" tells the story of Viktor Navorski, a traveler from the fictional Easter Bloc nation of Krakozhia, who lands at J.F.K Airport to visit New York City for personal business. Promptly upon arrival his passport is revoked as invalid and it's soon revealed that Krakozhia has been dissolved by civil war.

Technically devoid of a home country, Viktor is now in systemic limbo: without a passport he can't be released onto American soil and with no country to deport him back to, he's effectively trapped in the unique modern purgatory that is the 21'st century airport.

The facility's senior Homeland Security agent Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), who's apparently under tremendous scrutiny to avoid loose ends, begins a willful campaign to drive Viktor out of the airport so he will be arrested and become someone else's problem.

He begins by depriving the refugee with food, but Viktor quickly learns that the terminal is a microcosm of North American life and a bastion of free enterprise. Next thing you know, he's eked out a reasonably quiet place to live near a gate that's shut down for renovations, begins making money by returning wayward carts to a carousel and befriends the staff who provide uneaten meals off the flights.

Along the way he plays matchmaker to one of his benefactors, learns rudimentary English using a New York City guidebook, falls in love with an American flight attendant, clashes with Dixon over protocol, and eventually reveals the nature of his visit.

Supposedly the film is based loosely on the life of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian dissident who lived in the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris for eighteen years! The film is an obvious and innocuous parable about how it's possible to forge opportunity in life using the tools of ingenuity and ambition.

This is great an all, but credibility is tenuous at best here. At one point Viktor uses his miraculous idiot-savant type skills in construction and manages to parley it into a $19 an hour job which causes Dixon to mutter in amazement "He's making more money than me now!" I liked Viktor's resourcefulness and determination to stay honest, but I never really bought Hanks in this role.

I wish Spielberg had actually cast someone who was from some former Iron Curtain country that doesn't exist anymore. Hanks is charismatic enough but I just keep getting shades of Uri from SNL's "Sabra Price is Right" when he becomes particularly animated (Just "Google" it and you'll see what I mean).

He veers from being crafty beyond belief to the equivalent of a village idiot. The behavior of Stanley Tucci's character seems entirely driven by the conventions of the script. He seems to be motivated merely as a foil for Viktor and his irrational opposition seems contrived.

Catherine Zeta-Jones seems injected into the film to provide a substantial hottie factor, which she does remarkably well. Mercifully the script avoids a major cliche hurdle in how they reconcile her relationship to Viktor.

The film's denouement is satisfying the same way a chocolate bar temporarily quells hunger: it's quick, excessively saccharine and gets the utilitarian job done. Of course Spielberg does his usual masterful job of creating a visually arresting film with plenty of dynamic camera motion within the confines of a limiting set, but its the conventions of the "connect the dots" script that ultimately keeps "The Terminal" firmly grounded.

This is a pleasant, non-threatening little diversion which you'll likely never think about ever again after the credits roll. Tilt: down.