Wonderful, whimsical, optimistic, yet sometimes poignant

Rating: 9/10 (9 March 2012)

As a film, The Terminal is a beauty to watch and to look at. Yes, I believe the two are different. At least in this sense. Just because you're watching a film doesn't mean you like looking at it. You're sort of just watching what is happening. Who knows if you actually like what you're seeing? It's like if you're seeing Saw. Yes, you're watching it, but do you like to look deeply into the eyes of victims who have been gutted and left for dead? The Terminal is a lot brighter and more vivid than most dramas I have seen, and it's a beautiful film all around. It's food for your eyes and your thoughts.
I'm not sure another actor could've played the character of Viktor Navorski better. Tom Hanks has been working in film for about thirty years now, and has ejected his charisma into almost every character he has played. As an actor, Hanks is fantastic. As a character actor, Hanks is excellent.
In The Terminal, he is Viktor Navorski, who travels from the fictional country of Krakozhia to the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Navorski's native country is in ruins with a recent revolution taking place, and all planes in and out of the country have just been halted. His passport and credit cards are no longer valid either, meaning he can't enter the United States. He has slipped through a rare, unexpected crack that basically states he can't go forward or backwards. He has can't pass "Go" or collect $200.
His home base is the airport, a large and, literally, foreign world to Viktor, who can't speak English fluently. He spends most of his time desperately seeking money by returning luggage carts for a quarter a piece so he can have his next meal, eating saltine crackers and ketchup, and sleeping restlessly on rows of chairs. I'd like to call The Terminal a comedy, but the film is so sad in some parts it earns the title of "a drama." CBP Head Frank Dixon (Tucci) questions Navorski's strange behavior and his unhinged abiding of the rules. He doesn't resist, yell, scream, or get flustered. He just abides. Dixon wants Navorski out of his care, and tries to force him out the doors of the airport. Much to his dismay, Navorski chooses to follow the rules and stay put until the light is green. There is something so very admirable about a character who can cope peacefully in a cryptic and stressful situation.
It is much to my surprise that the entire airport is a man-made set in a hangar in Palmdale. It looks marvelous. According to director Steven Spielberg, everything functions as it would in real life, with real food and drinks in the designated outlets, real working stoves in the food court, bathrooms, escalators, etc.
I love films set in a public area, which would explain my fondness for films like Career Opportunities, Clerks, and Mallrats. Why I'm so astonished at The Terminal's location is that the film doesn't feel low or shy on material where it has to resort to pictorial aspects as a means of humor and substance. Scenes from a Mall, a Woody Allen movie, was about a married couple working out their marital differences, in public, while walking around a mall. There were so many unnecessary elements like a cloyingly unfunny mime wandering around with them and the fact that Allen's character had to lug around a huge yellow surfboard for the majority of the film. Those elements felt like gratuitous and impetuous distractions. Not to mention, the film didn't need to be set in a mall area. This was a film about a couple working out their differences; why did they have to do it in public? The Terminal avoids redundancy by including various characters, and dodges caricatures and dramatic dead-ends by providing development and substance to each one it introduces. When we go to an airport, we don't care about the janitor, the security guards, the people in there, or the people flying the plane; we care about getting from there to our desired destination, on time, and in one piece. Spielberg has created a wonderful, whimsical, optimistic, yet sometimes poignant story focusing on a man's unfortunate experience in purgatory without turning it into a ridiculous epiphany or a laugh riot.
Starring: Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, Barry Shabaka Henley, Kumar Pallana. Directed by: Steven Spielberg.