THE TERMINAL- never took off !!
With a cast like Mr. Tom Hanks, Mrs. Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Mr. Stanley Tucci and the master Mr. Steven Spielberg behind the cameras I assumed The Terminal is going to jet away non-stop to destination heart. I fastened my seat belt and turned off my cell phone, pager and other electronic devices and waited, and waited, and waited. About 2 hours later I realized I had gained no frequent movie watcher miles as this one never took off.
While I took the DVD out I pretended to forget that Mr. Spielberg was even associated with this one, assumed that Mr. Tom Hanks’ Viktor Navorski was really a Bulgarian impersonator who did a really bad job of being Mr. Hanks, and wondered why Mrs. Zeta-Jones was even in it.
This one didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth, I wouldn’t go that far but there was a definite blandness associated with it.
The premise was fairly straightforward and yet somewhat intriguing. We are made to believe that in this day and age a diplomatic mishap has caused a man to be marooned at JFK Airport while the status of his country and hence himself is being sorted out by the US Department of Homeland Security. While there our protagonist makes friends, endures some interesting interactions, allegedly even finds love and then fulfills the one reason he was in the US in the first place. Of course we are not made aware of the 'reason' for his arrival in the US till very late and by then it dawns upon the viewer that he has been there for months, which in itself is a hard fact to swallow since we do know the efficiency of the Americans, especially when it comes to matters of Homeland Security.
One scene after the other the film spirals downward from being an intelligent situational comedy to a fantasy of feel-good moments, so fantastical that there should be no attempt at logic to even explain the events. The director does throw in one plot twist towards the end involving Mrs. Zeta-Jones, and that is not in synch with the fantasy genre I thought I could pin on this one. That somewhat sudden jolt tries hard to bring the viewer back to reality, maybe so that the viewer can remember to pick up his or her trash from the theatre, but in effect what it achieves is a rancid flavor to go with the sugar-coated ride we were being taken on.
Mr. Hanks is a brilliant actor and the ease with which he makes Viktor Navorski his is evidence of such. Having said that Mr. Hanks does look disenchanted with the performance. The Hanks-esque intensity to which we are accustomed to is clearly absent. It would appear as if he felt this would be a made-for-television movie. Even in Cast Away where Mr. Hanks didn’t have much dialogue, his silence itself generated a shadowing presence. Comparing The Terminal to Catch Me If You Can, Road to Perdition, Apollo 13, and Forrest Gump and you realize this was partly-interested Mr. Hanks at the best. Having said that, no one else but Mr. Hanks could have put heart in our Bulgarian lead’s character and his subtleties while acting will have you feeling for Viktor Navorski from the first scene to the very end. Not an unforgettable performance but definitely vintage nonetheless.
Mrs. Zeta-Jones looks absolutely stunning in every frame that she appears in. Her character though leaves a lot of unanswered questions, and that usually can be a good thing but in this case it’s mildly disconcerting. She portrays Amelia, an air-stewardess who works in first-class and happens to bump into Mr. Hanks’ character initially by mistake but then by the latter’s choosing. Amelia is a complex, intelligent and gorgeous woman and it’s not hard to see why Viktor falls for her. But then we are left wondering why she is having an affair with a married man. She answers that question for us by telling us it’s the sex. But that really doesn’t add up now does it. I mean on side she is portrayed as intelligent and intellectual person but then she continues to do something senseless. Viktor is able to have Amelia see her errant ways, even offers the perfect escape, but Amelia’s eventual course of action will leave you baffled. A character that leaves the viewer baffled till the very end doesn’t usually augur well in a feel-good flick like this one. What I assume Mr. Spielberg was trying to depict though was the helplessness and power of habit controlling a person, as intelligent as they may appear.
Mr. Tucci’s performance may have been one of the more impressionable one’s as the strict, ambitious and somewhat heartless Chief of Security. It was a predictable performance though and that may be a reason why his effort here will very easily be forgotten.
The other supporting cast does have a lot to do to keep The Terminal from sinking. Of note was Mr. Kumar Pallana, an 85 year old Indian actor, who portrayed a janitor at the airport. He did have a pivotal role in the movie and had many lines which he delivered with near perfection. His 'Indian-English' was very well spoken, and of the other immigrant workers he clearly stood out.
Mr. Spielberg is a director par excellence and someone who I personally idolize, but The Terminal does leave a lot to be desired. The warm, fuzzy feeling that I would have liked to have left with after watching the movie was only present with me during certain parts. The end seemed very rushed and rather abrupt, almost as if the cast and crew had to vacate JFK suddenly. Being a foreigner to American soil, I was able to relate to many aspects of the country’s policies and treatments of visitors, and upon hearing “un-acceptable”, there was an uprising of emotion, but there was little follow-up to that uprising, and that seemed to be the theme of The Terminal, in that it never sustained any one emotion for too long. Many starts and stops but this one just never seemed to have left the tarmac.
All in all I would say this one can be passed, but if you are an absolute fan of Mr. Hanks, Mrs. Zeta-Jones or have never been to JFK then wait for the DVD and oh no need to pack, this one isn’t going to take you very high off the ground.
While I took the DVD out I pretended to forget that Mr. Spielberg was even associated with this one, assumed that Mr. Tom Hanks’ Viktor Navorski was really a Bulgarian impersonator who did a really bad job of being Mr. Hanks, and wondered why Mrs. Zeta-Jones was even in it.
This one didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth, I wouldn’t go that far but there was a definite blandness associated with it.
The premise was fairly straightforward and yet somewhat intriguing. We are made to believe that in this day and age a diplomatic mishap has caused a man to be marooned at JFK Airport while the status of his country and hence himself is being sorted out by the US Department of Homeland Security. While there our protagonist makes friends, endures some interesting interactions, allegedly even finds love and then fulfills the one reason he was in the US in the first place. Of course we are not made aware of the 'reason' for his arrival in the US till very late and by then it dawns upon the viewer that he has been there for months, which in itself is a hard fact to swallow since we do know the efficiency of the Americans, especially when it comes to matters of Homeland Security.
One scene after the other the film spirals downward from being an intelligent situational comedy to a fantasy of feel-good moments, so fantastical that there should be no attempt at logic to even explain the events. The director does throw in one plot twist towards the end involving Mrs. Zeta-Jones, and that is not in synch with the fantasy genre I thought I could pin on this one. That somewhat sudden jolt tries hard to bring the viewer back to reality, maybe so that the viewer can remember to pick up his or her trash from the theatre, but in effect what it achieves is a rancid flavor to go with the sugar-coated ride we were being taken on.
Mr. Hanks is a brilliant actor and the ease with which he makes Viktor Navorski his is evidence of such. Having said that Mr. Hanks does look disenchanted with the performance. The Hanks-esque intensity to which we are accustomed to is clearly absent. It would appear as if he felt this would be a made-for-television movie. Even in Cast Away where Mr. Hanks didn’t have much dialogue, his silence itself generated a shadowing presence. Comparing The Terminal to Catch Me If You Can, Road to Perdition, Apollo 13, and Forrest Gump and you realize this was partly-interested Mr. Hanks at the best. Having said that, no one else but Mr. Hanks could have put heart in our Bulgarian lead’s character and his subtleties while acting will have you feeling for Viktor Navorski from the first scene to the very end. Not an unforgettable performance but definitely vintage nonetheless.
Mrs. Zeta-Jones looks absolutely stunning in every frame that she appears in. Her character though leaves a lot of unanswered questions, and that usually can be a good thing but in this case it’s mildly disconcerting. She portrays Amelia, an air-stewardess who works in first-class and happens to bump into Mr. Hanks’ character initially by mistake but then by the latter’s choosing. Amelia is a complex, intelligent and gorgeous woman and it’s not hard to see why Viktor falls for her. But then we are left wondering why she is having an affair with a married man. She answers that question for us by telling us it’s the sex. But that really doesn’t add up now does it. I mean on side she is portrayed as intelligent and intellectual person but then she continues to do something senseless. Viktor is able to have Amelia see her errant ways, even offers the perfect escape, but Amelia’s eventual course of action will leave you baffled. A character that leaves the viewer baffled till the very end doesn’t usually augur well in a feel-good flick like this one. What I assume Mr. Spielberg was trying to depict though was the helplessness and power of habit controlling a person, as intelligent as they may appear.
Mr. Tucci’s performance may have been one of the more impressionable one’s as the strict, ambitious and somewhat heartless Chief of Security. It was a predictable performance though and that may be a reason why his effort here will very easily be forgotten.
The other supporting cast does have a lot to do to keep The Terminal from sinking. Of note was Mr. Kumar Pallana, an 85 year old Indian actor, who portrayed a janitor at the airport. He did have a pivotal role in the movie and had many lines which he delivered with near perfection. His 'Indian-English' was very well spoken, and of the other immigrant workers he clearly stood out.
Mr. Spielberg is a director par excellence and someone who I personally idolize, but The Terminal does leave a lot to be desired. The warm, fuzzy feeling that I would have liked to have left with after watching the movie was only present with me during certain parts. The end seemed very rushed and rather abrupt, almost as if the cast and crew had to vacate JFK suddenly. Being a foreigner to American soil, I was able to relate to many aspects of the country’s policies and treatments of visitors, and upon hearing “un-acceptable”, there was an uprising of emotion, but there was little follow-up to that uprising, and that seemed to be the theme of The Terminal, in that it never sustained any one emotion for too long. Many starts and stops but this one just never seemed to have left the tarmac.
All in all I would say this one can be passed, but if you are an absolute fan of Mr. Hanks, Mrs. Zeta-Jones or have never been to JFK then wait for the DVD and oh no need to pack, this one isn’t going to take you very high off the ground.
posted by SIAII at 9:47 AM
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