A film that doesn't ask for praise.

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2008)

It seems that many of the films I've seen in my lifetime beg to be thought of as a "great film." They want the Oscars, so they go controversial, take radical cinematography approaches (which end up giving headaches and confusion), and have other overly-bold characteristics that take away from the true purpose of a dramatic film- to send a message that moves the audience. Maybe that message may be disturbing (like in "Requium for a Dream") or maybe it's insightful ("Into the Wild"), but it must have something that will stick with the movie- watcher for days, and have them question ideals, conformities, or whatever it may be.
That being said, The Terminal is one of the best dramatic films I have ever seen. Not because of Tom Hanks' incredible performance, and not because of the lighting or the shooting sequences. The reason why I loved this film so much was because of its many messages, a major one being that one can still have age-old integrity and honesty in a world where it may serve you better in the short-term to make an invirtuous decision.
Tom Hanks' character, Viktor Navorski, is an intercepted voyager from the fictitious country Crocasia that is intercepted at an American airport's terminal because of his country's civil war, which forces the American government to label him as having no current citizenship. Throughout his long stay in the terminal, during which he fashions meals out of free snacks, learns the English language (okay, a little far-fetched, but it had to be done), and makes numerous friends simply on the basis of his honesty and trustworthiness. I'm not going to go too much into the plot, but I can say that it is NOT a Romance. Some descriptions of the film may give that suggestion, but the plot centers around friendship, not relationship.
Viktor's constant acts of kindness to those who don't plan to give him anything in return (for instance when he hilariously offers a gigantic fake fish to the airport manager that is keeping him locked in the terminal), and his simplicity in morals personally moved me to a point of realization. We all know what the right and wrong things to do are. Even if we may habitually do the wrong things, we do know they are pervasive. Steven Spielberg shows in this film that living a good life does not take the genius of a philosopher or the experience of a priest, but merely making every decision the way we know is the right way. This film doesn't ask to be held up for acclaim; it just asks to be watched and learned from.