The Terminal

Rating: 6/10 (22 September 2005)

Director Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) because of his long success with film-making has permission to direct pretty much anything he wants, and this film certainly proves that. Basically Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks, in his third Spielberg film) from Krakozhia wants to go to New York, but a war in his country means it is unrecognised by the U.S., and with no correct identification, he cannot legally enter the United States, or go home, until the war is over. For now, Viktor must live in the JFK airport terminal and not leave the building, so he adapts and sets up residence in the airport, and this is making the man who put him there, Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci) very unhappy, and Navorski in the airport could complicate his chances of a promotion. He tries a few ways to get Viktor to leave, but he remains where he is surviving on left over food, until of course he gets help from new friends in the airport staff, Joe Mulroy (Chi McBride), Enrique Cruz (Diego Luna) and Gupta Rajan (Kumar Pallana), who help him to survive. Over the time he is in the airport, who also once in a while bumps into flight attendant Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta- Jones), who is hopelessly waiting for her boyfriend to come back to her, so they are both ultimately waiting for something, and even though they get close, they cannot be together. Eventually, the war does end in Viktor's home country, but Frank refuses to let him go to New York and fulfil his promise to his father, he also threatens to fire all his friends because of their disrespect to rules and regulations, but thankfully Gupta delays the plane and Viktor finally heads for the doors to America, and even Frank's right hand Ray Thurman (Patch Adams' Barry 'Shabaka' Henley) lets him go. A happy ending when he finally gets the signature of the final member of a classic jazz group. Also starring Zoe Saldana as Dolores Torres. Hanks is superb with accent and emotions of all situations put in front of him, Zeta-Jones has her moments, Tucci is a great power-hungry villain-type, and there are some gags and dramatic moments to be had. Steven Spielberg was number 56 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, Tom Hanks was number 3 on The 100 Movie Stars, and he was number 39 on The World's Greatest Actor, Catherine Zeta-Jones was number 10 on The 50 Greatest British Actresses, and she was number 39 on The 100 Worst Britons. Good!