Heartwarming, kooky, touching

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2016)

Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) is a citizen of Krakozhia, an obscure non-existent Eastern European country, who arrives at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in order to visit New York City. Unfortunately his country has experienced a revolution while his plane was in the air and has promptly revoked all travelling licenses. Including Navorki's. So, they cannot allow him to enter United States proper, but neither can they send him back, because technically he hasn't been recognized as a citizen of the new Krakozhia. So he has to stay at the airport, indefinitely.
Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have always been a fantastic team and this just might be my favourite film from the two of them. Spielberg's flair for entertainment and intrigue is in full blast. The airport is riddled with personalities and as most of the film is spent with Navorski simply wandering around and interacting with them, it makes sense that they should be the focus of the film. Well, they are and they work wonderfully. I especially like Stanley Tucci's Frank Dixon, the head of the airport, who gets far more than he bargained for in Viktor and is slowly driven to the brink of insanity because of this one man. The film might also be Catherine Zeta-Jones's finest work.
But it's Tom Hanks's performance that shines the brightest in this film. Sure his pseudo-Slavic accent is hokey, sure it makes no sense that he doesn't just leave the airport and claim asylum, sure there are a whole bunch of other small things that don't really add up. It's not a very realistic film - though it is inspired by real-life events - but rather a film that pulls you into a story, an experience, an adventure. And in the middle of all that is Hanks, living through it with sad eyes and a solemn face, which every now and then lights up with joy and discovery.
If you like Spielberg or Hanks you're going to like this film. If you like them both, you're going to love it.