What Brett Watched

The Terminal (2004)

Sometimes in life, we must go through the motions before we find our way home. In Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, Viktor Navarski, does just that, and while becoming a symbol of hope to the everyman of our American melting pot. Navarski, charmingly portrayed by Tom Hanks, drives this human comedy into fulfilling territory and a strong supporting cast helps to highlight a core value of America that makes this place so special.

Viktor Navarski becomes a refugee who is stranded at JFK Airport when his home region of Krakozhia erupts in a military coup, causing his passport to be invalid. With the clothes on his back and a mysterious Planter’s Peanut can, Viktor sets up shop in Terminal 67 and calls it home. He is initially welcomed by Acting Field Commisioner Frank Dixon, played exquisitely by Stanley Tucci, but eventually Navarski’s quirky but charismatic mannerisms garner too much attention for the promotion-seeking Dixon, who vows to make Navarski someone else’s problem.

Spielberg does a brilliant job using comedy to comment on this notion of governmental red tape often seeking to make matters of immigration someone else’s problem. Navarski is deemed “unacceptable” by Dixon, a term at odds with a country founded by and dependent upon immigration. When Navarski is introduced to his new home at JFK, he’s told the only thing he can do is shop; as a person, he’s “unacceptable” but as a consumer, he’s welcome.

Surrounded by the capitalist wasteland of JFK airport’s international travel lounge, Navarski only gets glimpses of television clips showing his homeland in chaos, and this is juxtaposed with his surroundings; the dregs of hyper-American culture and the bright lights of endless enterprise. In this grotesque holding-cell, Viktor is left to fend for himself; and he does just that. With the resourcefulness and spirit of the common folk, Navarsky figures out how to survive, then thrive. The refugee catches the attention of many airport staff, who indulge themselves in the Viktor Navarski show as if it were a cheap reality television show.

The lounge at JKF works as a microcosm of our country, as the terminal itself, filled with workers of all backgrounds and restaurants of many ethnicity’s; The airport depends upon immigration, as does America. Navarski inspires hope in these people after an incident where he talks down an agitated man trying to get his dying father medicine, but cannot because of the unbending and often heartless American bureaucracy that would deny a man cheap medicine, but not a goat. Navarski navigates the situation cleverly and compassionately and wins the hearts of the Airport’s working force.

The Airport workers are endearing, and well-cast with the likes of Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Chi Mcbride, and especially Kumar Pallana, who plays Gupta Rajan, a janitor from India. Pallana provides some big laughs and just as much heart. Stanley Tucci gives a solid performance as Dixon, adding just the right amount of push to Hanks’ pull, while showing obsession with a bit of heart at the end. Catherine Zeta Jones does a fine job navigating a peculiar almost-romance as flight attendant Amelia warren. The connection between Amelia and Viktor is apparent but complicated in that she’s involved in an extra-marital affair. Zeta-Jones plays the unique role with care, as her Amelia yearns for a good man like Viktor, but her self-destructive tendencies drive her toward sour relationships. We want Viktor and Amelia to be together, but the irony of her going back to the married man, only because she uses this man to help Viktor finally gain entry to New York City, underscores the theme of sacrifice throughout the film, which we also see when Gupta chooses to return to India to face charges so Viktor can leave the airport.

Worth mentioning is John Williams’s playful and heartfelt score, which celebrates Eastern European culture, and reels it in with subtlety in just the right moments. Williams has some of his finest work here, and it perfectly reflects the themes.

In one if his more modest films, the Spielberg succeeds in bringing a heartfelt feature that has more to say than meets the eye. With an excellent cast and a fun and warm score, The Terminal triumphs. 8.5 out of 10