Spielberg's The Terminal Pushes All the Right Buttons

This week I watched The Terminal again for the first time in perhaps 10 or 12 years. Funny thing is, although I remembered the story line I could not recall the reason our hapless hero Viktor Navorski came to the U.S. in the first place. Nor did I recall that this was a Steven Spielberg film, one of several that the masterful director has made with Tom Hanks.

The storyline is this. Viktor Navorski (Hanks) has flown into the United States from his homeland Krakozhia, a small country in Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, there has been a coup during his flight and the new regime has not yet been recognized by our State Department so that his temporary visa is rejected. On the other hand, he is not able to fly home because his return is similarly blocked. In short, he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. He has nowhere to go. 

Adding to his problems is Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci, The Devil Wears Prada) who refuses to bend any rules to help resolve Navorski's complicated tangled mess. A bureaucrat gatekeeper more concerned with appearances than realities. 

The film has all the elements of good entertainment. Conflict, comedy, characters with definite aims, all thrown into a series of stalemate situations. 

Hanks began his career with a number of humorous roles, and after films like Castaway, Apollo 13, Captain Philips, Saving Private Ryan, Sully and Philadelphia one could forget that he's pretty good as a comic. The film opens with Navorski being unable to communicate effectively with Dixon who is clearly clueless about the degree of their communication gap. Hanks plays it a little over-the-top, which is probably just the right touch, letting us know up front it's not a serious drama. 

Audiences may not realize how familiar Hanks is with the heavy accent he struggles to express himself with. In real life, Hanks' father-in-law is Bulgarian, and in one scene late in the film he's talking Bulgatian and not just babbling,

I remember wondering if this were based on a true story and was both surprised and not surprised to learn that an incident like this has happened in real life. The film was purportedly inspired by the story of an Iranian refugee who arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport near Paris but was unable to gain entry to France after his papers were stolen. What's a fellow to do?

So Navorski makes the airport his home. (I was curious if the name Viktor Navorski was inspired by Bronko Nagurski, the football star, a name that always struck me a cool.)

I remember bringing my dad to JFK Airport when I was younger. What I remember most was being struck by how tall those international passenger jets were.  

For the film, Spielberg & company built an entire airport set, including all the restaurants in the food court. The Hudson Books would be recognizable to any frequent business flyer over the past 30 years.  I'm curious what they do with these massive sets after they're filmed? One would imagine they're recycled somehow. Any ideas?

Some of the humor is subtle. Navorski is unable to leave the airport, but in one scene he's in the Borders Book Store reading Dr. Seuss' Oh the Places You'll Go.

Right from the opening scene there's that unusual attention to detail in the camera angles, titles and method of conveying information. It's part of the Spielberg DNA.  

One of the features of the story is how many character storylines are developed. Each is well defined, each has more to his or her story than what we see initially. Like Hanks, each has a personal quest.

Another feature of the film which I either hadn't picked up on before or forgot was this notion of waiting. Everyone is waiting for something. I think of the Kinks' "So tired, tired of waiting..." Patience is a virtue, and waiting is the test that tries our patience more than anything.

The romance elements bring another layer into the film. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a stewardess who flies all over the world, and at first she doesn't realize that Hanks actually "lives" at the airport. You know how it is when you run into people you know at airports. If you travel a lot it happens and they are always on their way to somewhere else. And yes, it is another kind of waiting that Hanks must do, ever waiting to see her again.

There were some mixed reviews of the film on imdb.com. Because it was Spielberg and Hanks, one reviewer said, "I've come to expect more." Well, it worked for me. Even Graham Greene wrote some novels that called "entertainments." Not everything has to strive to change the world. If you haven't see it, it's fun.