One of Spielberg's more lightweight projects, stays in place with style

Rating: 8/10 (23 October 2005)

Spielberg can make a great story out of anything with his packages of sounds, sights, and story lines that elevate his work above that of mortal filmmakers. That being said, it's interesting to see him working his magic here on a story so devoid of movement. By that, I mean that compared to Jaws, Raiders, of the Ark or Schindler's List or even a more lightweight contraption like Catch Me if you Can, this isn't a movie where a lot of things happen. This is a slower paced movie that's really about the characters and the nuance of the arena and what more fascinating arena is there than an airport? On that level, the movie is meticulously crafted and sells the setting.
Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man from a fictitious country who through a bureaucratic glitch is trapped in John F. Kennedy Airport. It's based on a real-life story about an Iranian man who flew to Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport as the Iranian revolution occurred and found that the country listed on his passport was no longer in existence when he landed, and interestingly enough the man is still there. Historical accuracy is not this film's priority and for that matter, neither is any kind of realistic portrayal about the way an airport is run. The film is, more than anything, an abstraction: it treats the airport as not just the place we've all been through, an intermediary point on a longer journey; but as a state of mind as well. Because of that, unanswered questions about why Navorski's friends don't ever seemingly go home at the end of the day or how flight attendant Emilia Warren (Zeta-Jones) can have so much free time for a full-fledged romance on her layovers don't really need answers.
The movie surrounds its protagonist with a traditional nemesis in Stanley Tucci as by-the-book airport official Frank Dixon, a love interest (Zeta-Jones), and Chi McBride, Diego Luna and Kumar Pallana as various airport employees who serve as his entrouage. In some cases, particularly with Tucci's character whose actions are seemingly guided for no other reason other than to be the opposite of those of the protagonist, the film seems to be trying too hard to fit square pegs into round holes. In the end, however, the story ties together leaving you with a warm feeling that in this case is well-earned.