Tom Hanks is trapped in the departure lounge of JFK Airport

Rating: Null/10 (23 September 2016)

Viktor Navorski is a citizen of a fictional Eastern European country who is making his way through New York's JFK when news breaks of a coup in his homeland and more importantly for him the cancellation of all of the countries passports. This leaves Victor in a strange limbo; he can't now enter the United States nor can he be sent home as it is too dangerous. He is left to live in the international departure terminal; a situation at frustrates Frank Dixon, the man in charge of the terminal. Frank would prefer it if Victor just left; then he would be somebody else's problem. As time passes Victor doesn't just survive in the terminal; he thrives. He makes friends with some of the workers, learns English and even gets a well-paid construction job after finishing a job that had been left overnight. He also befriends Amelia, a stewardess who passes through the airport every couple of weeks, and the possibility of romance arises.
If you are looking for a film that captures what it would be like to arrive in a country only to discover that your homeland was in turmoil and you were now stateless then this really isn't it; that is just an excuse to force our protagonist to live in the airport this is very much a comedy not gritty realism. The comedy is gentle and pretty funny; this is of course helped by Tom Hank's performance as Victor; he does a great job making his situation believable and his character likable rather than irritating. He is ably supported by Stanley Tucci as Dixon and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Amelia; I liked the fact that certain expected clichés in the relationship between her and Victor were avoided. The rest of the cast are pretty solid too. While this isn't one of Hanks' or Spielberg's best known film it is a lot of fun and well worth watching if you are looking for a gentle film with some good laughs and characters you can care about.