Good from Far, but Far from Good. Review on The Terminal Movie

I believe that, mistakes do happen with the same frequency as s happens. The law of averages finally caught up with Steven Spielberg (SS), Tom Hanks (TH) and Catherine-Zeta Jones (CZJ) in The Terminal.

On a recent summer evening, the fatcat was rolling down anytown’s main street after feasting on some lip smacking dinner and eye pleasing sights and entered a multiplex to see what was running.

With a cast of SS,TH and CZJ fatcat chose The Terminal (over Garfield) – ”namak haraam”, “billi jaat ka kalank”, “paida hote hee kyoon nahin mar gaya”, “yehi din dekhne ke liye main aaj tak zinda hoon”, raced through his mind.

Mental pictures of “before” and “after” images flashed:

The movie was good from far but far from good. Released on Jun 18 it has a running time of 128 minutes. I would give this a 3/5 and would recommend it for strictly one viewing if you:

have nothing else to do

admire SS

worship TH

drool over CZJ

The Plot

Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski, a native of a fictitious eastern European country (Khazowski) arrives at JFK airport on a mission – a promise made to his dad. The promise is in the form of a mysterious Planters tin – since I said mysterious, would hate to divulge the story behind the peanuts – suffice to say – it is not to make peanut butter sandwich.

Viktor’s timing to enter the US was all wrong – there is a coup in his country, a new regime takes over, which is not recognized by the US and TH falls through a crack in the system of international travel – his passport and visa become invalid and until things are sorted out, the director of US Customs – Stanley Tucci as Frank Dixon – releases him into the international transit lounge of the terminal area and asks him to wait. He is provided with a beeper, a phone card and some meal coupons.

While waiting, TH befriends several of the airport staff – notable among them is a Enrique – the foodcart driver, who nurses a crush with an immigrant officer, Ray - the baggage claim attendant and Gupta - the cleaner.

Slowly TH’s stay in the airport becomes a nuisance to Dixon who advises TH to escape – at the last minute TH disagrees and he is back in the terminal and waiting. A chance encounter with CZJ – a flight attendant with United, has TH playing the romantic angle.

TH begins to make gate 67 his home, obtains a job as a construction worker in the airport and continues to become a nightmare for Dixon.

Some incidents are funny, some are unbelievable and some are total thrash. The only thing that stands out is the brilliance of TH’s acting.

A mediocre plot with mediocre roles, mediocre direction and a bizarre ending sums up The Terminal.

The Characters

# Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski - brilliant performance – especially his adaptation to a new country, learning a new system. He swam effortlessly through his role.

# Catherine Zeta Jones as Amelia Warren – a poorly developed role – but with CZJ who care for the role – she was stunningly beautiful and looks slim and ravishing.

# Stanley Tucci as Frank Dixon – it was not clear why he hated TH , other than to use this as stepping stone to climb out of his dead-end career as an agent. He was obnoxious at times which was unnecessary. An average performance.

The three friends consisting of Enrique, Gupta and Ray, provided the backdrop for TH’s 9 month stay in the airport – average performance by these actors.

An attempt was made by SS, to make TH’s role of Viktor as some kind of a good samaritan – the result was irritating at times.

A movie that can be safely given the miss or at best seen once with very low expectations.

Fatcat should have seen Garfield instead.