When I first heard about the movie The Terminal, I didn’t think I wanted to see it. The movie didn’t sound too interesting to me at that point. Then I saw a preview and it did look interesting. Since then I’ve wavered about if I wanted to see the movie or not. I did end up seeing the movie and enjoyed it for the most part.
Viktor Navorski arrived at JFK airport able to speak very little English. There was a problem with his passport, and he had to go see Frank Dixon, an official at the airport. While Viktor was traveling to the United States, there was a coup in his country. All passports from that country had been revoked. Viktor couldn’t enter the United States, and he couldn’t return home. He wouldn’t be able to get a new passport until the United States recognized the new government in his country. Frank told Viktor to wait in a section of the airport. Viktor didn’t fully understand what was going on. He saw news footage of what was going on in his country, but he didn’t understand what was being said. Viktor found a gate where some construction was going on and settled down to sleep the best he could.
Frank was up for a big promotion and he didn’t want anything going wrong at the airport. An inspection that would be important for determining if he got the promotion was coming up. Frank saw Viktor as a complication that could screw up his promotion. Frank never thought that Viktor would really wait in the terminal. In fact, Frank truly didn’t want Viktor waiting in the terminal. Frank tried to come up with ways to get Viktor to leave, which would make him someone else’s problem. Viktor found ways to survive living in the terminal and even made friends of some of the employees. He learned more English. He helped a relationship between two employees. He also started a friendship with Amelia, a flight attendant who was involved in an affair with a married man.
CAST
Tom Hanks - Viktor Navorski
Catherine Zeta-Jones - Amelia
Stanley Tucci - Frank Dixon
Chi McBride - Mulroy
Diego Luna - Enrique Cruz
Zoe Saldana - Torres
Steven Spielberg - Director
The Terminal was released in June of 2004. It turned up at the theater here on the eighteenth, but I think it opened earlier other places. The movie was rated PG-13. I didn’t see anything that would objectionable for children to see. I just don’t think this is a movie kids will be interested in. The movie was 128 minutes long.
The plot for The Terminal wasn’t complicated. It was very straight forward. Viktor couldn’t leave the airport because his passport was no longer good. He wouldn’t be able to leave until things over there were settled. Viktor was trying to survive in the airport until he could leave for New York City and do what he came to do. Frank wanted Viktor out of the airport so his promotion wouldn’t get messed up. That really was it for the plot. Viktor did learn many new things during his stay in the airport and he made friends. It seemed like everyone who worked in the terminal came to know who he was. There were things that happened that I didn’t expect, but this really wasn’t a suspenseful movie. The pace moved along well for most of the movie, but it did drag a bit here and there at times. It did seem like the movie was a little too long.
There were serious things that happened in The Terminal along with some funny things as well. Viktor’s situation of being trapped in an airport in an airport wasn’t funny, but funny things happened as a result of that. It was really funny when Viktor was bathing in the men’s room. He was even wandering around the terminal in his bathrobe at one point. Later in the movie Viktor and a man were both shaving in the men’s room. The man asked Viktor something, and the look on Viktor’s face was hilarious. Viktor didn’t understand what was going on at first. I never understood how this could be set in a large, international airport, yet there was never a translator around. Viktor spent months in the terminal, but an interpreter never showed up to help explain to him what was going on. Later in the movie, an interpreter was needed for another man having trouble with customs, and yet again, there was not one around. There didn’t seem to be too much security in the airport either. I have never been to JFK airport, so I have no idea if the airport is really laid out the way it was in the movie. Late in the movie, the reason for why Viktor traveled to the United States in the first place was finally shared. The explanation was a bit of a let down.
I have seen The Terminal described as a romance, but I really don’t think it is. Viktor and Amelia had a chance meeting once day in the terminal. They ran into each other again a while later, and it was shared that Amelia was involved with a married man. She and Viktor met a few more times, but their relationship went nowhere. I knew before seeing the movie that nothing would come of it from some things I’ve read, but I didn’t expect what did happen. Amelia wasn’t around too much. She popped up every so often, talked about the trouble with her relationship with the married man or spouted off some facts about Napoleon. Viktor helped along a relationship between two people, Enrique and Torres, who worked at the terminal, but not much of their relationship was shown either. Viktor had scenes with both Enrique and Torres, but those two didn’t have many scenes together at all.
The acting in The Terminal was very good. Tom Hanks was wonderful as Viktor. He spoke with an accent throughout the movie, and spoke a foreign language at times as well. Viktor wasn’t from a real country. I’m not sure if the language Viktor spoke at times was a real one or made up. Hanks was very believable in his performance. Viktor was confused about what was going on, and then extremely upset when he saw that something was going on in his country. His expressions conveyed a lot. Catherine Zeta-Jones was fine as Amelia, but she really didn’t have that much to do. She turned up every so often. At one point she told someone that she went through that airport twice a month. She and Viktor didn’t have much time together, and she only had two or three scenes that Viktor wasn’t in. There really wasn’t much for Catherine Zeta-Jones to work within this movie. Stanley Tucci was also very good as Dixon. He was focused on getting his promotion, and was willing to do some not so nice things to get it. Tucci played the part perfectly. I have seen him in some other movies, but I’ve never seen him play a part like this before. Chi McBride and Zoe Saldana turned up as some of the employees at the airport that Viktor became friends with. Saldana played an INS agent that Viktor saw daily as he continued to try to get into the city. She had a small part in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
CHARACTERS
Viktor Navorski - Man who had to live in JFK airport for months after his passport became invalid when there was a coup in his home country. Viktor taught himself more English and did different things to survive in the airport. He did what he could to help others even when he was in the situation he was in.
Frank Dixon - Customs agent that told Viktor to stay in the terminal until things were straightened out. Frank never expected Viktor to actually wait in the terminal. Frank expected to get a big promotion soon, and he didn’t want Viktor around to possible mess things up. Frank was determined to get his promotion.
Amelia - She was a flight attendant that came through the airport every so often. She was having an affair with a married man. She’d been seeing him for seven years. She liked reading books about history and knew a lot about Napoleon.
Mulroy - One of the employees at the airport that became friends with Viktor. Mulroy had worked there for years.
Enrique and Torres - Two employees that Viktor became friends with. Viktor helped Enrique romance Torres.
I was a little disappointed by a few things with The Terminal, but it was still an entertaining movie. Hanks and Spielberg have both done better, but it was still better than many other movies.
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