Terminal Loneliness

Rating: Null/10 (18 June 2004)

With 'The Terminal' Steven Spielberg has created a sweet, light-hearted comedy which is sure to please broad audiences and which will be a sizable financial bonanza for its producers. Spielberg's latest film has no higher ambition than to entertain. Its modest, understated approach serves the film well. The amalgam of the proper handling of the solid comedic material, Spielberg and Hank's superior talents, precise casting, and apt cinematography has concocted a benevolent, likable and appetizing movie experience.
Tom Hanks' talent flourishes to full bloom in 'The Terminal'. After an unfortunate acting choices in 'The Ladykillers' and in 'The Road to Perdition', Hanks is back to his prime form! In the film, he stars as Victor Navorski, a Russian-speaking visitor to New York City. Victor is caught in immigration limbo that leaves him stranded in the airport terminal for nine months. The film is a star vehicle and Hanks controls it like a pro. He is crucial for the film's success. The mastery of his performance, the indispensable value he contributes to the success of the project, brings to mind another comedic actor's splendid performance - Hugh Grant's charming rendition of a politically incorrect playboy in the 2002 trendy comedy 'About a Boy'.
'The Terminal' wastes no time in identifying and placing obstacles Victor needs to overcome. Empathy with the hero is thus easily established and we root for Victor right from the start. The film's first half-hour is most satisfying as we witness Victor's ingenuity in adjusting to new, extraordinary circumstances.
Inevitable, Victor meets a romantic interest in Amelia, a flight attendant played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. The characterization of the airline stewardess is a potent symbol that effectively mirrors Victor's current state - stranded, lonely and disjoined from the rest of the world. Amelia has lost faith in man, which is easier for a beautiful woman in her profession than in any other. For a brief moment she imagines that Victor could be just the right man for her. It is commendable that the filmmakers have evaded traps in defining their evolving relationship, traps that could have turned the film into a sappy melodrama. Zeta-Jones plays Amelia with gusto and just the right mixture of naiveté and desperation.
A comedy without a distinguished, pointed plot-line need to draw laughs from creative characterization of its supporting players. Here, Stanley Tucci playing the airport chief security official Frank Dixon and Kumar Pallana ('Royal Tenenbaums') as an airport janitor Gupta Rajan are especially noteworthy. Pallana, in pulling some of the antics obviously inspired by the Windex Dad from 'My Big Greek Wedding' incites more laughter than anyone but Hanks.
One of the missed opportunities to make this a more engaging picture is a failure to deeper explore and exploit Victor's motivation for coming to America. A desire to get a photo signed by an obscure jazz player, a missing link in his father's collection appears to be full of creative potentials and worthy of a substantial subplot.
Endings in Hollywood pictures have often been huge letdowns. Ever so frequently a wrap-up of a story is tailored to conform to latest market research or audience's expectations. It is refreshing that 'The Terminal' ends somewhat unpredictably but more to the story's spirit adding a dose of credibility to its fragile premise.
This fictionally weak, convoluted premise is actually based on a true-life tale of an Iranian refugee who has been living in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport for 16 years. Life is stranger than fiction and unfortunately not always as humorous. In bizarre turn of events, the true-life tale of the Iranian refugee got a real Hollywood ending - he has received a rumored $250,000 from DreamWorks for the rights to his story.