SPOILER some spoilage, Listen to Roshnir

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2004)

It is great to be company with two other perceptive viewers of movies, roshnir and i-love- tom-hanks. I also agree that there is a political statement being made about the red tape in the U.S. and Homeland paranoia. One can see with the scene where a fellow Eastern European was caught bringing in prescriptions to the U.S. for his father. He was bringing it from Canada and the scene is about the exorbitant and ridiculous cost of prescription meds, here in the U.S. and the satire of the pharmaceutical companies and the role of the government and restrictions imposed upon the consumer in dire need of the meds. Here, he is let go if it is for his goat, then it is admissible. All these rules and regulations which dictates the U.S. law and government comes into play. Furthermore, in the beginning of the movie, Commissioner Dixon tries to figure out all these regulations and codes to bypass his problem and to get Viktor (Tom Hanks) out of his hair, bald though he is, not to criticize Tucci.
Another tidbit is in the very beginning of the movie. It is ironic that the we are asked by passing through security we are always asked, "Are you here for business or pleasure." There are a couple of shots showing this ridiculous question. We are like in a processing line, like robots giving our standard cookie cutter response from a cookie cutter question. I always think about the California cheese TV commercial. The security person asks us, "What is your reason for visiting California?" Everyone is different but they all say "the cheese." When this unfortunate fellow says something else rather than cheese, he is whisked away. Funny but that says something about our government. To get to the point, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. And come on, do we always have to have the cookie cutter ending where the guy always gets the gal. What made Casablanca great? As roshnir says:"subtlety" of this movie is very skillfully done and I'm glad Spielberg took on this film and know why.
It is not a stretch for the imagination, such contrivances are based on a true incident Gazzo2! For the story to be believable, it would take 9 months to birth the relationships that Viktor (Tom Hanks) has with all the employees at JFK. And the little Indian guys does stop an airplane not just spinning plates. Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) falls for Viktor on meeting him in happenstance initially and other occasions that builds up to their relationship which does take TIME. It is conceivable that a country would take months to get its affairs in order. If you look a little deeper you would be engaging your mind rather than going on autopilot. The tagline is: "Life is waiting." If you took the time to look between the lines, you probably would have got a better perspective of the movie. The cuteness of the Tom Hanks is played to a tee and he fit this role perfectly. This is not meant to be an action packed movie. Maybe that is why the zzzzzzz's. Look for a pleasant surprise about life and its twists and turns. Take the TIME to see this movie.