The Terminal | Review

The Maestro of feel-good films brings a little bit of humanism where one would expect it the least.

Airports are hubs for misplaced luggage, missed flights, foreign languages and sometimes lost souls. The futurized setting of the airport lounge with its thousands of running clocks, eyes in the sky cameras, neon-lit commerces and plastic plants is hardly a place where one would expect to find a little bit of humanity.

Steven Spielberg continues in his series of survivalist stories, this one might not take place in the Amazonian jungle or involve barbed-wire fences but the notion is just as punishing. This hardly believable re-imagining based on a true life story about a man stranded in an airport, sees Tom Hanks (The Ladykillers) star as a marooned Soviet who makes sandwiches out of soda crackers and ketchup packets and who spends his time making his universe a better place. Told in ascension of feel good moments, Spielberg attempts to bring a little color to a place where some people call home. The film’s antagonist force from Stanley Tucci (Road to Perdition) is borderline ridiculous, one sequence sees him drill the immigrant, knowing perfectly well that the man’s English vocabulary is limited to a handful of words. Without his presence, the character Viktor would have nothing to fear except sore muscles. Since 9/11, airports have become a far from friendly environment, buffering that fear is the conveniently designed Hanks who injects his romantic charm towards a flight attendant (Catherine Zeta-Jones – Chicago). Despite the fact that he lives at gate 67 and that his bathrobe attire pronounces that he more comfortable than a third world country seduces her with the help of a crew of friends, an awful accent and a couple of facts on Napoleon.

The term ‘delayed’ is a key word for The Terminal, it not only makes a statement about the protagonist’s eternal wait, but it also describes the stealthier episodic nature of the film’s narrative. The first half is smart in setting up the compassionate qualities but it curiously doesn’t work as well in the middle and final act which are tied down by non-necessary subplots and secondary characters. With almost no moments of mental anguish, the story is festered by one too many moments that aim for the heart. The multiple ending as elaborated with a tin-box secret ending is yet again shows Spielberg’s inability to keep a story within limits. What’s interesting is Spielberg’s use of space, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski has fun pulling away from his subject, with a close-up and back into an establishing shot with the crowd. It’s interesting to see how the camera and the set décor add to the traveling without moving experience.

It might have made better sense to release the film during the Holiday season since Spielberg blankets this film with a Miracle on 34th street type of sugar-coating. This is a lighthearted affair that will fair well with conventual audiences but may grow tiring for those who were enthusiastically surprised by Spielberg’s last in Catch Me If You Can.

Rating 2.5 stars