Much of the success of last year's critical darling "Lost in Translation" hinged on a great American comic actor playing the role of a man completely lost in a strange world he doesn't understand and playing that role with just the right mixture of pathos and silliness. That description fits "The Terminal" equally well, with Tom Hanks in the pivotal role instead of Bill Murray. But instead of setting the story in an "exotic" land like Tokyo, Japan, director Steven Spielberg and company have put American audiences on the other side of the two-way mirror and spin their yarn against the backdrop of JFK International Airport.
Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a visitor to America from the fictitious country of Krakozhia -- fictitious in the senses that you won't find it in your pocket atlas and that its government collapses while Viktor is in the air thus obliterating it from existence in the eyes of the State Department. When he touches down in New York, Viktor finds out that he is technically a man without a country and U.S. Customs cannot let him out of the terminal until the United States recognizes a Krakozhian government. So Viktor waits. And he waits some more. And then he keeps waiting. This is the bare-bones plot of "The Terminal."
But the film works because the film isn't really about Viktor Navorski waiting to go to New York. "The Terminal" is less about Viktor and more about the characters he encounters while waiting and how he affects their lives. He plays matchmaker between a customs officer and an airline kitchen worker. He befriends a lonely Indian janitor (endearingly portrayed by Kumar Pallana of "The Royal Tenenbaums" fame) who left his family 40 years ago, never to see them again. The reactions to the ripples that Viktor leaves in his wake are what make this film so much fun.
But it would all be for naught were it not for the superb performance from Hanks. He proves once again why he is one of America's greatest and most beloved screen actors of all time. Even with his bona fide superstar status, Hanks still manages to find a way to completely inhabit another character and make us forget that he's the same actor from "Philadelphia" or "Forrest Gump." Additionally, his comic timing is impeccable throughout the film, especially when sharing screen time with gifted character actor Stanley Tucci, who plays the by-the-book U.S. Customs Commissioner keeping Viktor in the airport.
A few of the films plot points come off as phony, but these are forgivable in light of the genuine human warmth that seems to have gone into making this film. In many ways, "The Terminal" sums up the idea of the human comedy pretty well. It is alternately absurd, tragic and poignant but ultimately puts a smile on your face.
Check it out if you find yourself with some time to kill.
