A brave movie that ends happily without the Hollywood Ending

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2005)

The Terminal is a film that seems to be written for an actor like Hanks. Like the films Castaway and Catch Me If You Can, it's very character-driven. At times, the story loses its direction, but it could be intentional on the part of Spielberg (and the screenwriters), because that's the way the main character (Victor Navorsky) feels.
The film follows Navorsky as he lands at the JFK airport in NYC and eventually learns that he is stuck in the international lounge of the airport due to the dissolution of his homeland and the fact that the US will not immediately recognize the new government. As Navorsky begins to learn of his new predicament and how to cope, he makes mistakes and must use his mind to come up with alternate methods to get food, shelter, money and work. Truly, in many ways, Navorsky's story embodies what the mythological American Dream is all about with him using resourcefulness to show a sort of rugged individualism that causes him to "pull himself up by his bootstraps." That is one of the great strengths of the films script.
The other great strength is the much welcomed femininity of Zeta Jones' character about halfway through the film. At some points, the viewer might wonder how this relationship is going to resolve itself before the end of the film with Zeta Jones as the promiscuous flight attendant and Hanks as the wandering, yet trapped foreigner. Well, I'm happy to say, the writers make the brave choice with her character that isn't Hollywood. At the same time, she still seems to redeem herself.
If I had to find a weakness, it would be that antagonist, Stanley Tucci's character (as the airport director) really isn't all that much of an antagonist for most of the film, making the eventual conflicts between his and Hanks' characters seem a bit flat.
Overall a brave film with a lot of great themes.