A Wonderful Character Study

Rating: 8/10 (24 August 2016)

The Terminal is a wonderful character study, which is something with which Tom Hanks seems to be intrigued... Forrest Gump, Cast Away, The Terminal, Bridge of Spies, etc. He does a very good job with it, for the most part.
First of all... The premise of the film is unlikely. A person in the situation of Hanks' character -- Viktor -- would not be treated/ignored in the manner show in the film, especially post-9/11 (the film was released in 2004). I know -- I work in the travel and transportation industry. However, that is not really relevant to the point(s) that the film appears to be trying to make, so a little suspension of belief in this regard is acceptable.
Just for the Record: In the real world, Viktor would swiftly have been removed from the airport, and probably would have been granted temporary asylum or somehow returned to his home or an intermediary location. At any rate, he wouldn't have been allowed to wander around the airport for weeks or months, when the authorities knew his situation from Day One. In that respect, the film is just a caricature of U.S. bureaucracy. That situation was necessary for the plot, so the filmmakers had to use a little "artistic license" to create the situation which they wanted.
So, then we see the Character Study. A foreign national, who doesn't know English, is suddenly trapped in an unusual situation in the USA. He's not an accused criminal, but he's trapped. How would he respond? According to the film, he does so by reverting to his own culture and personal morals. That makes sense. When we feel afraid and isolated, we almost always revert to our basic instincts and base culture. It helps us to feel safe and comfortable.
Viktor does that. He looks for ways to sustain himself, he helps other people as he was (probably) taught to do as a child.
The only real issue that I had with the film was the somewhat manufactured relationship between Viktor and Amelia (Catherine Zeta- Jones). That seemed to be a bit non-sequitur.
Overall, a very good film that explores humanity and emotion very well.