The Terminal (**)
review by Jon
Waterman
While Viktor Navorski was on a plane heading to New York City,
his native land of Krakozhia begins a civil war. The political
coup that happened overnight left Navorski without a valid
passport or visa, since the country in turmoil is not recognized
by the United States during the unrest. Viktor is not allowed
to enter NYC, nor is he allowed to fly back to his home. Instead
he’s left to live inside the airport’s international
terminal until things get resolved, however long that may be.
The idea sounds pretty far-fetched, but it’s based on
a true story of a man that still resides in an airport terminal.
What’s more contrived is the reason that Viktor comes
to New York. I’m a little surprised the writing team
couldn’t think of anything better, something less tacked
on. However, it is a Steven Spielberg picture, so cheap sentimentality
isn’t out of the question. Otherwise, the story/script
isn’t terrible, but it hardly addresses everything it
probably should. Jeff Nathanson (who did “Catch
Me If You Can,” but also “Speed 2” and “Rush
Hour 2”…) wrote the script with Sacha Gervasi based
on the story Sacha conceived with Andrew Niccol (who did “Gattaca,” but
also “S1m0ne”…). They produce a strange amalgam
of virtually every family-friendly sub-genre possible that
verges on being too much, but somehow stays within the borders
of watchability. It draws too heavily on self-referencing conversations.
That means, too often a character brings back some bit of dialogue
from earlier in the movie that should have been left alone.
And the whole bad guy thread went from non-existent to lame
duck. There were also side stories galore, some of which should
have been cut.
Speaking of cut, did Viktor find a buddy with some scissors,
because I swear that in all that time, his hair doesn’t
grow an inch. That’s a minor point. A major one is that
superstar actor, All-American boy Tom Hanks is playing the
foreign “immigrant.” I realize that the movie wouldn’t
have had the box office impact were he not attached. But, as
charming and likable as he was in the role, I can’t help
but think that more authenticity would have been better.
The movie is somewhat interesting at first, but rather quickly
loses steam when you realize that they essentially ditch the
concept in favor of more conventional stories, such as the
romantic threads. Overall, I could say that it’s cute,
but over two hours of that makes the film's wings a little
heavy. Like Viktor, this film just never really goes anywhere.
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