The Terminal | ||||
Steven Spielberg Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, Chi McBride, Diego Luna, Barry Shabaka Henley, Zoe Saldana, Eddie Jones, Kumar Pallana 2004 |
With Steven Spielberg directing and Tom Hanks starring, the World War II drama "Saving Private Ryan" was a box-office hit and an awards magnet. "The Terminal," their follow-up collaboration, is a different sort of people-pleaser gentle, whimsical, heart-tugging and Spielberg's latest bid to ensure his place as heir to great populist filmmakers such as Capra and Sturges. Hanks, modern Everyman of American cinema, plays Viktor, a kindly man from a fictitious Eastern European country. Flying to New York, Viktor becomes stateless when his homeland, Krakozhia, is torn apart by a military coup just before he steps off a plane at JFK Airport. In a confluence of geopolitical chaos and addled bureaucracy, Viktor is denied entry to the U.S. because America doesn't recognize the new leaders of Krakozhia and will not honor visas issued by the previous government. And he can't go home. That means he's confined to the airport's international terminal, a logo-branded microcosm of American mall culture, until the situation can be untangled. Ambitious airport official Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci) tries to marginalize Viktor. But the stranded foreigner, surreptitiously living in a terminal construction zone and smitten with unlucky-in-love flight attendant Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), is resourceful. It's tasty, sweet corn from Spielberg and friends. | |||
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