Studio : Dreamworks
Director : Steven Spielberg
Producer : Steven Spielberg
Screenwriters : Sacha Gervasi & Jeff Nathanson
Cinematographer : Janusz Kaminski
Composer : John Williams
Actors : Tom Hanks - Viktor Navorski
Catherine Zeta-Jones - Amelia
Stanley Tucci - Frank Dixon
Chi McBride - Joe Mulroy
Diego Luna - Enrique Cruz
Barry Shabaka Henley - Ray Thurman
Kumar Pallana - Gupta
Zoe Saldana - Dolores Torres
Synopsis of the Movie:
"The Terminal" tells the story of Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), a visitor to New York from Eastern Europe, whose homeland erupts in a fiery coup while he is in the air en route to America. Stranded at Kennedy Airport with a passport from nowhere, he is unauthorized to actually enter the United States and must improvise his days and nights in the terminal’s international transit lounge until the war at home is over.
As the weeks and months stretch on, Viktor finds the compressed universe of the terminal to be a richly complex world of absurdity, generosity, ambition, amusement, status, serendipity and even romance with a beautiful flight attendant named Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones). But Viktor has long worn out his welcome with airport official Frank Dixon, who considers him a bureaucratic glitch, a problem he cannot control but wants desperately to erase.
SOURCES:
• http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2004/STUVWXYZ/Terminal,The/main-page.html
• http://www.theterminal-themovie.com/main.html
A Hellish Hankering for Hanks
Rowena Rose M. Lee
With all the hype that surrounded the movie Catch Me If You Can (Dreamworks 2002), I watched it for only two reasons: Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Leonardo DiCaprio was flushed right down the drain, and I didn’t even notice. So when I first saw the teaser for The Terminal in the movie house, I knew I had to watch it – like hell! The teaser was conservative, but enough to beckon me to the cinema house over and over. Hell, I even watched that watery soup of a movie Princess Diaries 2 just to see the trailer for The Terminal. It was sick-o to the highest degree, but I was glad enough to catch Tom Hanks, even if it was just a 2-minute-teaser.
It is quite obvious that I am a Spielberg fan. I am forever in love with his movies and TV specials. Let me rephrase that: I am forever in love with most of his movies and TV specials. Those blasted movies A.I. (2001) and Minority Report (2002) are still giving me blasted headaches.
Speaking of Minority Report, who cares for Tom Cruise anyway? His movies The Last Samurai (2003) and Vanilla Sky (2001) are flipping, flopping and dying of ghastly deaths at the box office, not to mention at DVD sales. Remove the special effects and blood baths from the Mission Impossible movies and Tom Cruise stinks. I am still totally sore at this guy. He leaves Nicole Kidman for Penelope Cruz.
Did they ever think, ever, that if they had gotten married, her name would have been Penelope Cruz Cruise? Sheesh…
Anyway, Tom Hanks is also my favorite actor. His recent movies are like, “Hell, man!” and “Well, yeah. For a few million dollars, I’d lose that much pounds too…” But not all his movies are good. I still manage to sleep through the movie Castaway (2000) every time we watch it on VCD.
The Terminal, however, is something else. It is a movie that makes me laugh, smile, feel sad, and basically makes me want to be more patient and persevering. It is hard to imagine that this movie is actually based on a real life story. As Viktor Navorski, Tom Hanks is infinitely lovable. He gains a few kilos for the role of a middle-aged man, a carpenter by trade, who ends up “unacceptable” to enter American soil. He lives in the airport (Area 67) for nine months! If that does not translate to patience and perseverance than hell, I don’t know what does. Tom Hanks delivers a very funny, yet smart and compassionate Navorski. He plays match-maker between a very good-looking-but-with-a-thick-moustache Diego Luna (Y Tu Mama Tambien 2002) and a very dark beauty Zoe Saldana (Center Stage, Get Over It, Crossroads). He makes friends and eventually becomes a hero to the people in the terminal. But eventually, he waits and waits for the fulfillment of a life long promise. And what is that promise that Navorski has to fulfill that he insists on staying at the airport for that long time? And what’s with the can of peanuts? Hah! I’m not about to ruin the movie for you. Watch it, dopey. It’s worth the cash.
Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Amelia, and hell, is she really pretty in this film. Well, I guess not as pretty as her character Elena in the movie The Mask of Zorro (1998). But that does not make her less pretty. There is a part in the movie when she confesses that she is (supposedly) 39 years old. She looks marvelous for her age, but her acting in The Terminal is very Meg Ryan. The way she nods her head is so Meg Ryan. The way she casts her hands in the air is so Meg Ryan. Even her smile is so Meg Ryan. But I still like Catherine Zeta-Jones in this movie. She’s neurotic, but she too has a compassionate soul – sort of like a misguided being with a generous heart – oh you know, that sort of crap. But in the movie, Amelia and Navorski’s relationship is definitely crap, and I like their constant allusion to Napoleon and Josephine.
There is also Kumar Pallana, an 85-year-old actor from India who plays Gupta, an Indian national who has a shady history. He speaks in his clipped manner and evokes more laughter when he doesn’t speak at all. He spins and juggles plates and walks away without so much of a break in his face. He sacrifices his security in the USA to give Navorski a chance to visit New York City – and hell, the way he does it too, is something so funny, so outrageous, so cinematic that I think only Steven Spielberg and Kumar Pallana can pull it off.
The movie has wonderful effects, and is also picturesque. Most of the scenes in the movie are in the airport lounge anyway, but still, there are some special scenes where Spielberg shows mastery of film making. For instance, in showing loneliness, he takes a close-up of Tom Hanks while he is in the middle of a very busy airport and then pulls the camera away, showing Hanks to be merely a speck in the sea of people. And of course, I cannot resist Hanks’ tearful realization that his homeland Krakhouzia is under a blanket of hostilities. I had to smile to myself too in that scene where Navorski finishes reconstructing a wall and is dancing in his undershirt.
I had a toe-curling moment when Navorski’s lifelong dream was almost fulfilled when he was asked to wait for a few more minutes. Ano ba? If I were in his position, I would’ve sat down on the floor, kicked my feet repeatedly and tore my hair in clumps.
But Navorski waits, oh ever so patiently. And that is when I figure out why the movie’s tagline is “Life is waiting.”
It’s a great movie really. And although I know this will ruin your movie viewing, I think it’s wonderful that in the end, the hero doesn’t get the girl. Yep. Navorski doesn’t get Amelia – but the audience is given this distinct feeling that Navorski is willing to wait for Amelia, no matter what.
Although I have doubts about Polar Express, I think I’ll still be waiting in line for the next Tom Hanks flick. The Terminal just makes my life so worthwhile right now.