If bad movies with no purpose and no moral centre are the problem, then The Terminal is the antidote. Here is a film that is so unabashedly simple and sincere in its execution, that it ended up receiving mixed reviews from critics when it first came out. No wonder. All too often, we are inherently suspicious of anything which appears on the surface to be "good" or, at least, too good to be true. And yet, goodness is at the very heart of this picture, a welcome theme which, when done properly, can transcend other releases in a given week, month, or year.
Tom Hanks stars as Viktor Navorski, a citizen from the fictitional country of Krakozhia who has just landed in the USA. Before he can clear customs, the authorities at the airport are advised his country has gone to war and, as a result, his citizenship and passport are no longer valid. Viktor, now a man without a country, must stay within the confines of the airport as he is not allowed to set foot on American soil. Sure, this premise is shaky in its veracity, but because it's set up early in the story, we accept it and move on.
It doesn't take long for the thickly-accented Viktor to unintentionally make some enemies, not the least of which being the director of airport security, Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), who would prefer to pass along the paperwork as quickly as possible. By now, Viktor has taken up residence in the Gate 67 of the terminal, learning to survive by eating crackers with mustard squeezed onto them, by teaching himself to speak some rudimentary English, and by making the airport bathroom into a makeshift grooming station. He eventually befriends an airline stewardess named Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), as well as a lovestruck busboy (Diego Luna), a surly janitor with a mysterious past (Kumar Pallanatucci), and an INS agent (Zoe Saldana) who confesses she's a Trekkie. We come to realize that the terminal has become a home for these characters as well; sadly, we all spend a large percentage of our lives at our places of employment.
Steven Spielberg, who is on a bit of a tear lately with a string of good films (Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can), does here what he seems to do best: he tells a great story. There are parts of The Terminal that feel almost classical in the way they rip the heart strings or induce joyful laughs by simply establishing and following through on the strong screenplay (Sacha Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson). The popular comparisons to Frank Capra are appropriate. When we experience the baffling toughness and also the boundless generosity of the human spirit sometimes all in the same scene, we recall the Americana that Capra depicted so often.
This is not to say the film is not without its qualms. When the answer behind Viktor's dogged determination and his mysterious promise are finally explained, the payoff almost feels like a disappointment, because all of the scenes that have come before it are rooted in the present and, other than this specific plot point, none of Viktor's past is ever really addressed. In some ways, we want to let Viktor keep his personal life private for fear of ruining the larger-than-life heroic persona we are presented with.
The Terminal is at its most fantastical when Viktor must improvise in order to survive. In one wonderful scene, he "discovers" that when an airline cart is returned, he can get a quarter back. This tactic provides him with enough money to fast food. In another sweet scene, he treats Amelia to dinner while his new friends act as attendants and as the entertainment for the evening. It is Viktor's innovative ability to make due the best he can and to try to stay optimistic in the worst of circumstances that endears him so steadfastly to us.
With a fine cast and an exquisitely constructed set design, The Terminal establishes a fully-realized environment that will no doubt strike a chord with people who do a lot of flying. Only last month, I was in a couple of really big airports (Toronto International and Orlando International), and I found myself nodding along with not just the look of the movie and the enormous amount of extras, but in the small details that crop up. And often it's those small details that distinguish a mediocre film from being potentially an awesome film. Spielberg takes great care to present us with people we care about, people we want to know more about, and who we will vividly remember long afterwards. What a wonderful movie this is.
