The Terminal (Widescreen Edition)

The Terminal (Widescreen Edition)
by Steven Spielberg

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Movie Reviews of The Terminal (Widescreen Edition)

Movie Review: Hanks' and Spielberg's best since "Catch Me If You Can"!!
Summary: 5 Stars

"The Terminal" focuses on Viktor Navorski (Hanks), an eager, disheveled traveler from Eastern Europe. After arriving at his gate at New York's JFK International Airport, Viktor is getting ready to pass through customs when he learns that he can't go anywhere. The reason is that there has been a military coup in his native (and fictional) country of Krakozhia, and his passport is rendered invalid. Officially, he's a "citizen of nowhere", ordered to stay within the confines of the International Transit Lounge. Viktor, who speaks fragments of English, carries an old Planters peanuts tin around with him, and its mystery contents, we gather, are connected to the reason for his journey. Will he ever make it to Manhattan--or, more precisely, to the Ramada Inn on Lexington Avenue? Oh the sadness, the irony of it! He has arrived to fulfill his dream in America, and they won't even let him in!

You'd think it would be a temporary problem. The snarly, rulebound security officer, Frank Dixon (Tucci), would like to be rid of Viktor, he even tries to goad him into escaping. But Viktor is a dutiful and passive soul, and he won't even venture out. Viktor remains at the airport in limbo, and the hours stretch into days, weeks, months. Viktor is given food vouchers, which he promptly loses, and he gets shunted around without any thought to his physical comfort. But luckily for Viktor, he takes all of it in stride. He returns stray baggage carts for the reward of a quarter apiece to obtain food, and he appears to hone his English by reading the ticker on TV news channels, mostly to check on Krakozhia's situation. But Spielberg, working from a script by Sachi Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson (the story is by Gervasi and Andrew Niccol of "The Truman Show"), turns Viktor's stay at JFK mostly into a fish-out-of-water lark. During his stay in the airport, Viktor makes the most of his time by befriending many of the airport employees, including a baggage handler (McBride), a coyle hostile Indian santitation worker (Pallana), who enjoys watching people slip on freshly cleaned floors even after the "Wet Floor" signs have been placed on the surface, and Viktor agrees to play Cupid for Enrique (Luna), who's secretly in love with a sexy customs officer named Torres (Saldana). Viktor also develops a chaste flirtation of his own: He keeps running into Amelia Warren (Zeta-Jones), a breathless flight attendant whose romantic life is a case study in doormat cluelessness. She falls in love with Viktor while also being drawn to his deep-down nobility.

In conclusion, the team of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg is going strong and could not be better, especially because "The Terminal", by far, could be their best work together since "Saving Private Ryan" and "Catch Me If You Can"! "The Terminal" has everything that a comedy-drama should have: a splendid all-star cast and the great characters that they portray, laugh-out-loud humor, remarkable storytelling, heartfelt emotion, and a great soundtrack that Academy Award-winning composer John Williams ("Minority Report", The "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars" films) can provide us with! "The Terminal" is, without a doubt, when released, a worthy DVD must have to my Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg collection!

Summary of The Terminal (Widescreen Edition)