Good, but could have been great

Rating: 7/10 (19 June 2004)

The names Spielberg and Hanks are nearly synonymous with quality films, and certainly when teamed together (Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me if You Can). I was a tad surprised a movie like The Terminal was being released in the summer  when I first saw the trailer about a month ago I assumed it was a fall release  but this film ought to do well no matter what the season.
The set-up is simple: Hanks plays Viktor Navorsky, a simple man from one of the break- away Russian Republics whose country collapses while he's in mid-air. Once he arrives in JFK, they don't know what to do with him; they can't send him back, and they can't let him in. He's a man without a country, and customs boss Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci) is a die-hard by-the-book kind of guy who is determined not to break any laws in his handling of Navorsky's case. Along the way a stewardess falls into Viktor's life (literally) in the form of the dazzling Catherine-Zeta-Jones.
The premise is somewhat thin, so we must rely primarily on Hanks to carry the picture by himself, which he's already proven he can do (Castaway, et al), and here he does not disappoint. Hanks is charming as Navorsky, who is a simple man caught in a complicated puzzle with no idea how to get himself out. Viktor makes friends with various workers at the terminal, and his interactions with them are amusing; he helps bring one couple together, and he gets to know another fugitive from a foreign land. His semi-relationship with Amelia (Jones) is very well done and thankfully has a few twists in it to make it a little unpredictable.
Spielberg also does a lot with a movie that, let's face it, only has a few different sets, even if one of them is a sprawling mall complex. Unlike Viktor, we never feel confined by the movie, but we begin to see the airport as a self-contained little world, much as Viktor does. He continually turns adversity into opportunity, which helps to explain why being confined does not bother him so much.
But Viktor is a little too good. He's honest, hard-working, helpful, unassuming  he's everything we Americans like to think we are but rarely manage to be in reality. As is usual in a Spielberg film, Viktor's benevolent attitude toward people ends up coming back to him in spades, and he ends up being a sort of unofficial hero of the terminal. But Viktor never breaks down or has a moment of anger (which would be natural in such a case) and his optimism never fades, not even for a second. While it's a nice performance by Hanks, Viktor's just a little too good to be true.
Stanley Tucci also does an excellent job, but like many authority figures in Spielberg films, he's a little two-dimensional. He alone grows increasingly personally annoyed with Viktor's successes, one after the other, and he constantly tries to thwart the man. Dixon is the opposite of Viktor, a man unaware that his own negative actions will come back on him; but that rings a little hollow in a situation where Viktor is such the everyman that people can't help but be drawn to him. Only someone inhuman could fail to respond to the perfect Viktor, and Dixon's increasing anger comes off as a bit petulant after a while.
The film is certainly worth going to see; there are some very funny and touching moments in it, and one sub-plot's resolution pleased me greatly toward the end. Hanks gives a winning performance and both Tucci and Jones are able to match him, no easy feat. But the film's a shade too black and white to be an emotional powerhouse; even one scene of Viktor losing his temper, even if he were all alone, would have helped. The Terminal is an enjoyable film, certainly worth going to see, but honestly I expected something a little more complicated and a little less obvious given the magnitude of the talent involved.