The Terminal is more than just a joyfully juvenile comedy romance

Rating: 8/10 (29 July 2010)

It starts at JFK International Airport where upon his arrival, Viktor Novorski (Tom Hanks) learns that a coup has taken place in his home country Krakozhia (a fictional state name believed to be located in the Eastern Europe.) Viktor has very limited knowledge of the English language. He is barely able to answer airport's officials' repetitively bureaucratic questions.
After he is stranded in the lounge, he struggles hard for his right to enter the US. But no body (airport staff/passengers) not only help him understand the news translation on TV, but also DO NOT facilitate the immigration process with his paper work.
Amelia (Katherine Zeta Jones) plays her part as a flight hostess brilliantly. In parts you think she's made for the profession. Viktor and Amelia have a unique chemistry in this movie. The dialogue throughout the movie is very soothing no matter it's among Gupta and his co-workers accusing Viktor for being a spy or between Viktor and Enrique who wishes to win the heart of officer Dolores with the help of no other one but Viktor and or leading casts' history chat- specifically on Napoleon Bonaparte's genius and gallantry.
The story is so well written. Viktor's adventure is to fulfill a promise and soon it turns into a survival story. In a scene, he goes from one store to another to make a living (three times meal.) At one shop, he's asked for contact details that much to everyone's surprise, he gives the nearby public telephone number and waits there for a phone call all day long and when finally the phone rings "what are you going to do now?" asks the owner of the shop rejecting him. "I'm go to the bathroom" Viktor replies.
Clearly, this project is inferior to Spielberg's previous works such as Schindler List or Saving Private Ryan but needless to say, once again, he's paying attention to our deepest emotions as well. Imagine when it's peace again in Viktor's country, how hard he fights to fulfill his father's wish and then return to his home. It unfolds the curtains in front of the viewers' eyes and helps them to vividly see the twenty first century bureaucracy most governments adhere- the borderline mankind draws on their respective territories. It shows - the more - than - necessary formality of governments' departments which reminds us of Leo Tolstoy quote "Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us." It's about how Viktor copes with the unsettling conditions created by Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci) who is the head of the airport and monitors the monitor room occasionally. Frank gradually becomes jealous or better said worried of Viktor because his inner self sees Viktor's popularity and patience larger than it actually is. It's as if he fosters a depravity inside himself the kind that John Claggart did in Herman Melville's famous novel Billy Budd. Claggart too was jealous of Billy's youth, strength and natural charisma.
In concluding this commentary, the terminal is simple in the meantime a serious comedy that goes beyond the boundaries of the locations it's been filmed and repeats to thousands (well, HUNDREDS if thousands sound exaggeration) Viktors daily, weekly and monthly Viktors who are living in the third world countries and are being officially invited to wedding parties in countries rather their own- to a Western Country. Viktors who wish to fly to fulfill promises. Viktors who dream to embark on spiritual journeys, to make pilgrimage to the tombs of all those autonomous spirits- those literati and illuminati since middle ages instead faces severe tortures of bureaucracy since aviation facility or visa endorsement.
Highly recommended to those with mildly humanitarian sensibility