The Terminal (Widescreen Edition)
by Steven Spielberg
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Actor: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chi McBride, Diego Luna, Stanley Tucci, Tom HanksDirector: Steven Spielberg
Brand: Paramount
Producer: Andrew Niccol
Writer: Andrew Niccol
Producer: Jason Hoffs
Producer: Laurie MacDonald
Producer: Patricia Whitcher
Writer: Jeff Nathanson
Writer: Sacha Gervasi
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Bulgarian (Original Language); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 128 minutes
Published: 2004-11-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-23
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Dreamworks Video
DVD Reviews of The Terminal (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: Satisfying, Thoughtful, Funny Movie for the 30+ Crowd
Summary: 4 Stars
Tom Hanks, and the plot make "The Terminal" a top movie for the 30+ crowd.
There's nothing blockbuster happening here, belying the expectation we have of any Tom Hanks or Steven Spielberg movie, and yet it simmers near the top of Hanks' acting. He's better here than in "Forrest Gump" and "Green Mile," and more persevering than in "Catch Me If You Can." It is a movie that's easy to miss, but worth catching. Spielberg milks his skills as a sentimentalist, and gives us a satisfying time at the theater.
Calling it an intellectual movie is going too far, but it definitely is a thinking man's comedy. If outlined into a genre, it might fall into a situation comedy. Summing it up to "A man is confined to an airport terminal, and laughs ensue as he tries to get by day-to-day," would miss the layers of characterization and plot. The comedy evolves and unfolds slowly as we relate to Hanks and the troupe of airport employees who support or hinder him in his plight.
Tom Hanks is Viktor Navorski. He's flown in from his home, an Eastern European country, which suffers a coup while Viktor is on a plane to New York City. His mission is to acquire the autograph from a legendary jazz sax player to complete his late father's collection. Because of the coup, however, Viktor has his passport and related travel papers taken away. He becomes as stranded in an international airport terminal as he was in "Castaway." Through Viktor's attempts to resolve his quandary, we see Hanks sounding more Russian than Robin Williams as Vladimir Ivanoff in "Moscow on the Hudson," convincing us he is truly from the fictional country, Krakozhia.
As in "Castaway," Viktor improvises humorously to create an environment in which he can live. With tools left by construction workers and tradesmen, he rebuilds a wall, creates a Napoleonesque fountain and he finds a niche within the terminal that has gone unnoticed that he uses for a bedroom. He manages relationships with airport employees. In one situation, he sets up a food worker with an immigration official in trade for a meal. In another, he shows Amelia by example not all men are cheats.
Drawbacks and oversights discourage plausibility at times. From the pratfalls Viktor takes when walking into windows, to the naive persona he displays, there is a surprising stereotype of the Eastern European simpleton. Hanks, and especially Spielberg should know better. Also, Viktor is quickly useful in one scene to help translate for a Russian traveler, but never during Viktor's stay is a translator found for him. NYC has every tongue known to man, and yet there is no one who speaks his language? Why doesn't Amelia ever inquire more about Viktor's life? I don't buy it. These holes should have been filled.
Catherine Zeta-Jones as Amelia provides an average performance as a lonely flight attendant in a seven-year affair with a married man. Her on/off interest in Viktor as a subplot shows the romantic side of Hanks' character, but nothing of Jones. Being attractive isn't enough to give us much to feel compassionate about, or to care whether or not Viktor and she connect. We want Viktor to be happy, having such hapless luck foisted upon him, but she is only a means to that end.
Frank Dixon, as played by Stanley Tucci, has a unique job as a foil to Viktor. As security chief, he's the one who oversees the airport's efficiency, mindful of the details that keep things both secure and peaceful. Viktor's presence is not welcome, but Frank has no legal options but to let him stay. We can't be sure if Frank wants to help Viktor or not, as he flops indecisively in his efforts to oust Viktor from the airport. Although Tucci could've played Frank better, his lines needed more work. His character came across as underutilized by the scriptwriters.
Kumar Pallana plays Gupta Rajan, a janitor who cantankerously protects his job. When Viktor loses something in the garbage and tries to retrieve it, Gupta snorts, "Do you have an appointment?" Gupta is on the run from the Indian police and suspects everyone as being from the CIA. Pallana is funny with and without lines. His insidious smile as travelers trip and slide on a wet floor is as good as any John Belushi eyebrow lift.
The movie is an appropriate Father's Day film, as Viktor's undaunted devotion to his father's dream is touching. Recognizing the subcultures and society of the unseen airport support staff is well-done when stereotypes aren't in force. In a post-9/11 era, and the rigid needs of airport security, the movie highlight the confounding struggle innocent immigrants and travelers must now endure in order to walk from no-man's land to the land of the free.
I fully recommend "The Terminal." It has great DVD appeal, but seeing it on the big screen brings nothing special when compared to its competition of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Shrek 2." However, when it lacks in special effects, it swells in thoughtful, timely humor and drama. Send the kids into see "Harry," and hop into "The Terminal." It is no "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan" or "Philadelphia Story," it is still a movie that will leave feeling good but not stupid.
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
Description of The Terminal (Widescreen Edition)
After arriving at nys jfk airport viktor vivorski gets caught in bureaucratic glitches that make it impossible for him to return to his home country or enter the u.S. Now caught up in the world inside the airport viktor makes friends gets a job & finds romance - all inside the terminal. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/01/2007 Starring: Tom Hanks Stanley Tucci Run time: 128 minutes Rating: Pg13Like an airport running at peak efficiency, The Terminal glides on the consummate skills of its director and star. Having refined their collaborative chemistry on Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me if You Can, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks mesh like the precision gears of a Rolex, turning a delicate, not-very-plausible scenario into a lovely modern-age fable (partly based on fact) that's both technically impressive and subtly moving. It's Spielberg in Capra mode, spinning the featherweight tale of Victor Navorski (Hanks, giving a finely tuned performance), an Eastern European who arrives at New York's Kennedy Airport just as his (fictional) homeland has fallen to a coup, forcing him, with no valid citizenship, to take indefinite residence in the airport's expansive International Arrivals Terminal (an astonishing full-scale set that inspires Spielberg's most elegant visual strategies). Spielberg said he made this film in part to alleviate the anguish of wartime America, and his master's touch works wonders on the occasionally mushy material; even Stanley Tucci's officious terminal director and Catherine Zeta-Jones's mixed-up flight attendant come off (respectively) as forgivable and effortlessly charming. With this much talent involved, The Terminal transcends its minor shortcomings to achieve a rare degree of cinematic grace. --Jeff Shannon
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