The Terminal [2004]

Yes, you can certainly reach a translator on the phone if you do not have one on hand and the government has regulations for what happens in situations like this that do not allow people to fall through the cracks. But if we can entertain a willing suspension of disbelief to watch movies about catastrophic climatic changes and teenagers given mutant powers by the bite of a radioactive spider we can enjoy Steven Spielberg's fable about a man stuck in an airport terminal and refusing to lose his optimism or his humanity. Besides, there really was somebody who was forced to stay in an airport terminal, an Iranian refugee whose his passport and United Nations refugee certificate had been stolen (of course it was Charles De Gaulle Airport and French officials who refused to let the man go anywhere).

Hanks, looking rather frumpy, provides another performance that shows he is at his best as a leading man when he is proving himself to be a character actor. The obvious comparisons will be to "Forrest Gump," but this one is better; note that neither his accent nor his characterization lend themselves easily to imitation this time around. Some of his most effective moments are when he is speaking in his foreign tongue, where the words are never understood but the emotional meanings are always clear. He plays a character that is told he cannot leave the airport terminal and so he does not leave the airport terminal. We are not sure why, but the idea that he is from an Eastern European country, albeit a fictional one, seems to be the explanation since when he is afforded an opportunity it is the idea he is being watched that detracts him from leaving.

The story of "The Terminal" is basically about the holding pattern that Navorski is in while living at Gate 67. As he goes through his routines the circles of his existence keep encountering a small cast of characters including Gupta Rajan (Kumar Pallana), the janitor who likes to mop floors and watch people ignore the signs and fall on their butts, and Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the flight attendant who loses a heel on her shoe in front of Navorski doing just that. Meanwhile our hero has to deal with just surviving living in an airport terminal. Of course he does more than that, and as you would imagine he becomes something of a cult hero to those who work in the terminal as he not only endures but also perseveres.

Yes, there are some holes in the story. In the last act of the film they seem to remember the subplot regarding Navorski as the intermediate between airport worker Enrique Cruz (Diego Luna) and the lovely INS agent (Zoe Saldana) who rejects his visa application every day of the week and jump ahead to a happy ending. Again, you have to remember that this story is not a linear narrative but one that circles around, sometimes going down and sometimes up. You should just sit back and enjoy the ride and keep telling yourself this is not really a Steven Spielberg movie, it is a Tom Hanks movie.

You will also fall into the traps of various expectations with regards to the villain and the beautiful girl of the piece. But neither Dixon nor Amelia fits the stereotype and these somewhat rude awakenings serve to remind us that this film is about something else. That is because the biggest case of misdirection comes from the fact that we forget the question of why Navorski has come to America. This is just as well because you never would have guessed the reason and where "The Terminal" is different from other Spielberg movies is that the big moment really is a small moment.