Culture Shock

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2004)

Loosely based on a true story of a Middle Easterner stranded in Paris, THE TERMINAL is Steven Spielberg's latest film, and he manages to pull off something of a miracle--a series of comical moments integrating themselves into a good story.
Tom Hanks, who was superb in previous Spielberg films SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, is once again sterling in his role of Victor Navorski, a native of the fictional East European country of Krakozhia who finds himself totally stranded at New York's JFK Airport when his country falls victim to a political coup. The airport's homeland security chief (Stanley Tucci) can't get him on a flight back; and because the U.S. government doesn't recognize Krakozhia's current (if temporary) regime, Tucci can't even allow Hanks to take one step out of the airport's International Arrivals Terminal. Thus, Hanks sets up "home" at Gate 67 and subsequently makes life for Tucci and his security guards a living, comical hell, with his constant misunderstandings of American culture and political protocol, making friends with some of the airport's behind-the-scenes people, and attracting the eye of a romantically confused flight attendant (Catherine Zeta-Jones).
Spielberg's ability to get laughs from this film's situation far exceeds the below-average attempt he made twenty-five years ago with "1941." Yes, there are some slapstick moments, but they are better integrated into the story and are not the ENTIRE story, as they had been in "1941." Hanks and Spielberg, who have become our era's equivalent of James Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock, are of course matchless, and Zeta-Jones isn't too bad herself. Tucci makes for a very solid kind of heavy, and THE TERMINAL also pokes political holes at what constitutes "Homeland Security" in the post-9/11 world we find ourselves living in now.
Highly recommended for its quirky style, THE TERMINAL is yet another reason to treasure Spielberg as a cinematic American treasure.