One of Spielberg's and Hanks' finest hours

Rating: 10/10 (15 June 2004)

Review of THE TERMINAL
by STEVEN BAILEY
If Charlie Chaplin was still alive and creating, it's easy to imagine
him making a light comedy as richly satisfying as "The Terminal."
Just as Chaplin used to take a prop and wring every possible gag
out of it, Steven Spielberg's prop is a New York airport terminal
from which he extracts every story possibility. And Spielberg's
Chaplin is Tom Hanks, who takes a potentially show-offy, Meryl
Streep-type role and turns it into a movie character for the ages.= Hanks' role is Viktor Navorski, a European immigrant who
becomes a modern-day "man without a country" when his native
land gets embroiled in a revolution. Viktor can't return home
because his country is under siege, and he can't legally enter New
York until his country's new leadership is recognized by the U.S.
So Viktor has no choice but to live in the terminal--much to the
consternation of Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), whose chances of
becoming the terminal's top dog are jeopardized by Viktor's
constantly being under foot.= The movie's premise is laid out pretty flatly in the first ten minutes,
which begins to sink one's hopes. But it's as though Spielberg
wants to get the mandatory stuff out of the way quickly so he can
explore all of the possibilities in his huge playtoy. And he spins
Viktor through every facet of the terminal like a colorful top,
involving the terminal's quirky workers in his meager existence.= In that sense, "The Terminal" is a lot like "Being There" (1979),
where Peter Sellers played an illiterate simpleton on whom
politicians projected their needs and desires. But Hanks is far
from a blank slate. His body language, physical comedy, and
deceptively simple dialogue speak volumes. Chaplin regretted
having to give up silent movies because he felt that his "Little
Tramp" could not express himself uniquely with sound. I think
something like "The Terminal" would have been an effective
solution.= That's not to belittle Hanks' winning co-stars, especially Catherine
Zeta-Jones as Viktor's potential love interest and Chi McBride as
one of Viktor's many supporters. They all give Spielberg's work the
sheen of a big, beautiful dream.=