The Moose Hole - Review of The Terminal

Rating: 6/10 (19 June 2004)

Remember a time when back in the mid-1970s when Steven Spielberg was a young inexperienced director out in the middle of the ocean with a broken down mechanical shark shooting a movie many had predicted wouldn't make a dime at the box office? Thirty years later Spielberg is laughing all the way to the bank while all his naysayers and critics grumble away in disgust and dismay. In that nearly three decade career as a director, producer and studio owner, Steven Spielberg has laid claim to some of the most celebrated feature films of all time including Close Encounter of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones series, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, and Saving Private Ryan. And if box office numbers have any say in anything it's that Spielberg hasn't slowed down just yet as both Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can, both of which were made within the same year, grossed a combined $300 million domestically. With no signs of slowing down any time soon, Spielberg is sticking less with features that once made the most business sense and more with projects that peck his interest the most, this time around with the concept of airplanes in The Terminal.
The story for The Terminal is actually based on the true story of Merhan Karimi Nasseri who was banished from his home country of Iran in 1977 and traveled from one European city to the next seeking refugee status only to lose his briefcase in France forcing him to remain trapped in Charles de Gaulle airport where he remains there to this day. Upon arriving one morning into JFK International Airport in New York City, Viktor Navorski discovers that his homeland of Kakosia in Eastern European has become embroiled in a military coup led by rebel forces. Since the country of Kakosia no longer exists and a military embattlement has engulfed his homeland, Viktor is refused access to the United States since the government no longer recognizes his Kakosia passport or anything related to that country and will refuse to do anything with him until the war in his country is over. Until that time, Viktor Navorski can not pass the front doors onto American soil and must live within the terminal both day and night waiting for the war to end. In the meantime, Viktor befriends numerous airport personnel who request service from him to perform separate tasks in exchange for food, money, supplies, and anything else he might want while he waits for the doors to America to open. Within a nine month timespan, Viktor Navorski discovers friendship, romance, and the true realization of the American Dream without having to leave the confinement of the airport terminal building. The story for The Terminal plays much like another Tom Hanks film, Cast Away, only this time there's a lot more dialogue  too bad there isn't much substance behind those cleverly divulged words. Unfortunately the film suffers from its own unbelievable story line in that many of the scenarios that occur within the course of its two hour time length are so over the top that it is hard to take anything from them seriously. And despite having a relatively happy ending, most of the subplots that occur within the feature wrap up too neatly which, once again, derives a bit from the film's sense of believability and realism.
As was said earlier, The Terminal plays like Cast Away in that Tom Hanks is the main focus of the film and that is all that truly matters when it comes to the bare bones approach for movie-goers but if you rely on more supplemental supporting characters to add to the entertainment value, you aren't going to find that here. Tom Hanks never fails to do wonders with the material that is given to him, even the rather bland and weak components presented with the character of Viktor Navorski. There are moments where you are suppose to feel sorry for this man but unfortunately he is played out so much like a running joke at times that it is hard to keep a straight face in some of the film's more serious moments. And what's worse is that that running joke becomes less humorous and more annoying as the feature goes on thus eliminating potential connection one might have with the character and the actions that occur with him on screen. One character that does not seem to work well at all is Amelia, played by Catherine-Zeta Jones, the female flight attendant Viktor falls in love with. There is a point within the film where the audience is meant to feel sorry for the character after she admits she is tired of waiting for the right man to come along in her life  then we remember she knowingly had a sexual relationship with a married man. How do you feel sorry for a person who blatantly trots around the world having promiscuous relationships openly with married men and cares only of herself and no one else? And her relationship with Viktor Navorski, in the end, becomes pointless as just when she seems 'destined' to be with him, she ends up going back to 'dating' the married man she had earlier in the film. That combined with the lost connection the audience has with the character of Viktor Navorski results in an ample void in the film's emotionally driven message.
Overall, the arrival of The Terminal signals not a new surge in the creativity of director Steven Spielberg but rather it announces blatantly that the world famous director may have finally been brought back down to the level of mediocre filmmakers after spending so much time at the top. The film suffers severely from a rather predictable and emotionally confused script that wraps up nearly all its loose ends but leaves its audience scratching their heads wondering how the conclusion they received came about. The hard part is deciding what The Terminal actually is, a comedy or drama  there is enough evidence to support either side, and that is its problem. It's great that Spielberg introduces some well induced humor into the rather lifeless storyline but sadly he bunches too many gags into one time period leaving the audience confused when the direction of the film takes on a more serious tone. This is not to say that jokes that used in the film don't work well, they do, it's just that there are too many of them that they end up outbalancing the film's dramatic moments thus resulting in an uneven presentation. With both Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal coming off as less then impressive, especially compared to the superb work he's most known for, this should be a wake up call to the director to get his head out of the clouds (namely off the concept of airplanes) and back to the sci-fi and fantasy genres he works best with.
My Rating: *** out of 5 (Grade: C)