📽 THE TERMINAL [Steven Spielberg, 2004] - Movie review by Mandibil

For obvious reasons, Tom Hanks feels extraordinarily at home in this transformed Robinson Crusoe story. He did a very memorable job with the guy alone on a deserted island in Zemeckis "Cast Away". That experience pays of in this similar situation, about a man stranded "alone" in a "deserted" terminal, that he cannot leave and have to find a way to survive in.

Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) arrives at JFK airport in New York at the same time as a coup d´etat occurs in his fictional eastern European homeland called Krakozhia. This creates a disturbance in the US bureaucrazy that deems him unable to enter the country. At the same time he cannot return to his home country, since all flights there are cancelled. He has no country so his passport is invalid, which means he cannot get a visa. He is basically stuck in the customs bureaucracy and have to find a way to survive in the terminal area of the airport until the situation sorts itself out for him.

The chief of the airport customs and security Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), enforces the restrictions put on Viktor. He tries his best to figure out a way to get him of the premises, but language barriers and a certain amount of resistance from Viktor ensures that he stays where he is. Dixon´s relation to Viktor is largely based on his own fear of non-conformity and lack of ability to put himself in the place of others. Furthermore Dixon has a big promotion set in his sights and that adds to the tension between the two.

Despite Viktors lack of language skills he quickly figures out ways to survive and create a space for himself. He also gets acquainted with a number of the employees working at the terminal and his well meaning, goodhearted and somewhat exotic appearance, makes it easier for him to make friends. Even the illegal alien, Indian fellow, who has a sadistic pleasure out of watching people slip on his newly wiped slippery floors, opens up and becomes a friend.

There are some overly sentimental aspects, like his very unlikely romantic entanglement with an extremely beautiful stewardess Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), with whom he falls in love, but never will be able to have, since she is after a rich alpha male. Then there is his matchmaker service for the Hispanic worker, who has fallen in love with a female customs employee, who handles the application forms Viktor tries to get through the system on a daily basis.

But that aside, the story is very likable and the low key and sort of old school feel of the humor, is a bit of a relief, compared to other contemporary kinds of humorist movies. It takes a director of Spielberg´s stature to pull something like this off. It does have the same nationalistic tendencies that is also prevalent in other works of Spielberg, but it does not interfere with the overall story of Viktor and can more easily be excused.

Tom Hanks is the perfect actor for this role. In fact no other comes to mind for a role like this and he basically owns it. Even in the weakest parts of the plot and the story, he drags it home safely. This is an astonishing achievement and shows the talent he has for portraying ordinary people put in extraordinary circumstances in a lead that basically carries the whole movie on its shoulders. He knows how far he can take the slapstick and the caricatures, without overdoing it. There are more than a few very funny scenes that highlights Hanks´unique sense of humor and obviously quite improvised feel.

In a way, the story is about everything and everyone around him, trying to mold him into someone who fits the preconceptions of how you are supposed to behave. He is a nuisance to all those who cannot see beyond the stonewall of habits they live by, but he is a liberation to those who are able to see the beauty of simplicity and maybe even ignorance. Viktor is driven by a simple but personal task that he has promised his father to fulfill and in the end he manages to do so, with the help of those who can see. There are also some unconscious aspects in the plot that arrives after the patriot act and raised security after 9/11 that shines through.

The lightness of the characters, the humor and the story is very dear to me and this is a kind of movie that "they don´t make any more". I saw it recently with my 8 yo daughter and she loved every minute of it and laughed a lot at all the crazy situations. And she was also a bit baffled by my attempts to explain the bureaucracy he faces, which just goes to show the ridiculousness of it. A recommendable movie.

Rating: 8/10