The Terminal

I really liked "The Terminal" up until the last 15 minutes. At the end, after watching great performances in a touchingly funny movie, I felt as if the reward wasn't everything that it should have been.

Tom Hanks stars as Viktor Navorski, an Eastern European immigrant that gets stranded in a New York airport after his country of Krakozia has fallen in a coup while he was in the air. The United States won't formally recognize his country thus making it impossible for him to touch American soil. He also can't go back as all flights to Krakozia have been cancelled. Adding to Viktor's plight is the fact that he speaks very little English. Customs official Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci) allows him to stay in the International terminal, fully expecting Navorski to flee the airport. Instead, and much to Dixon's dismay, his homeless guest makes himself quite at home in the airport terminal, even managing to get a job to feed himself. Viktor also makes friends with a number of airport employees.

Not surprisingly, Hanks is excellent as Navorski. His initial lack of understanding English is near comic genius. He then also manages to make you feel his frustration and desperation as he realizes the atrocities occurring in his homeland. The supporting cast is equal to the task, and manage to create many of their own stand-out scenes.

I think it was the subplot trying to create a romance between Viktor and a flight attendant (Catherine Zeta-Jones) that was actually the weakest link, the least believable, and the cause of my unsettled feelings with the ending. What could have been a truly great movie ends up getting grounded, failing to reach its ultimate altitude. I give it a B+.

"The Terminal" is rated PG-13 with a running time of 125 minutes.