Cast: Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, Chi McBride, Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana
Director: Steven Spielberg
Producers: Laurie MacDonald, Walter F. Parkes, Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: Sacha Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson
Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski
Music: John Williams
U.S. Distributor: Dreamworks Pictures
Throughout his long career as a director, Steven Spielberg has been a master of the "big moment," whether it's in an action-adventure popcorn film, or something serious like a Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan. In The Terminal, however, those "big moments" betray Spielberg more often than not, and the film's success derives from the "small moments" and details. The Terminal is to be savored for its unhurried approach and simple fish-out-of-water story that favors individual character-driven moments over dramatic plot developments. Yet, because the desire to imitate Frank Capra is needlessly strong, The Terminal is too falsely upbeat to ascend the cinematic mountain from the plateau of a good movie to that of a great one.
In its own way, The Terminal is as much a fantasy as Jurassic Park. It's a fairy tale that has just enough of a touch of reality to keep it grounded. The premise - that a man could live months of his life in an airport terminal - holds a certain fascination (especially for those with a large number of frequent flier miles, who will feel a peculiar kinship with The Terminal's protagonist), but, in the post-9/11 era, it's not credible. So a certain amount of suspended disbelief is necessary. (Sort of like accepting that cloned dinosaurs could inhabit a theme park.)
Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) is a native of the Slavic country of Krakozhia, a fictitious neighbor of Russia. While he is en route from his homeland to JFK Airport, a military coup takes place, and, when Victor arrives in the United States, he learns that his VISA has been canceled. And, because the United States has not recognized the new government of Krakozhia, he cannot be deported. So, in bureaucratic terms, he does not exist. The head of the airport, Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), decides to allow Viktor free reign of the International Terminal, provided he does not attempt to leave the airport. So Viktor begins to set up a life for himself, getting to know the people who work in the terminal and developing an interest in a pretty stewardess, Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who comes across his path on more than one occasion.
When The Terminal is content to follow Viktor's everyday activities, it's a source of entertainment and fascination. We see him interact with a janitor, play poker for lost-and-found items, learn how to make money without engaging in illegal activities, visiting the same INS agent (Zoe Saldana) every day, and making a deal with a food service delivery man to keep his belly full. He tries to contact home and get a job. He is tempted to walk out the door into New York City. And he finds himself falling in love with a woman who describes herself as poison to men. When he first arrives in New York, he can hardly speak English, but, by studying volumes bought from the airport book store and listening to television news reports, he gains a working knowledge of the language. And, putting his carpentry skills to work, he constructs a bedroom of sorts at a disused gate.
The Terminal has a light tone that veers between comedy and drama. It is marginally more successful in the former arena; some of the scenes are very funny. Timing is critical any time a movie wants to make an audience laugh, and Spielberg knows how to deliver each punch-line. Hanks, who can veer effortlessly from heavy to breezy material (and played an even more impressive fish-out-of-water in Cast Away), has no difficulty making Viktor believable and likeable. Curiously, both Hanks and his female co-star, Catherine Zeta-Jones, are both coming off recent appearances in different Coen Brothers comedies (Hanks in The Ladykillers and Zeta-Jones in Intolerable Cruelty).
Sadly, Spielberg missteps on more than one occasion. His first mistake is to force-feed us a villain. Instead of making Stanley Tucci a benevolent bureaucrat, he is turned into a power-hungry, petty dictator whose life seems dedicated to giving Viktor grief. Secondly, instead of simply allowing Viktor to lead a relatively anonymous life, he is turned into a hero through an incident that hardly merits canonization. Finally, although the film as a whole offers a sense of closure, one of the subplots is left frustratingly unresolved. (Apparently, there was a last minute re-shoot done in an attempt to rectify this open-endedness. It closes a loop, but not in a satisfying manner.)
Then there are the product placements, and they are all over the place. I recently complained about the same kind of commercialism in Garfield, but it's worse here. Burger King, Sbarro, Borders, Starbucks… Nearly every kind of establishment to have a foothold in an airport gets plenty of screen time. Of course, with all of the fast food Viktor eats, one has to wonder whether Morgan Spurlock will suddenly show up with his Super Size Me cameras.
As I stated earlier, it's the big moments - the ones inspired by a Capra-esque desire for grand feel-good scenes - where Spielberg is on shaky ground. During these instances, we can sense the manipulation, turning what's transpiring on screen into something false and forced. The negatives are not enough to drag The Terminal down. It's still a fine, enjoyable, uplifting fantasy that's suitable for viewing by all members of the family. (It's a "soft" PG-13, with only a few mild swear words keeping it from a PG.) In the summer of 2004, that's a pretty good bet. But in the canon of Spielberg, this is a minor effort.
© 2004 James Berardinelli