Arts & Entertainment
 

'Terminal' leaves audiences waiting

Hanks, Tucci deliver where story line fails

By Barrett Goldsmith
The Daily Cougar

The Terminal is a film about waiting -- waiting for planes, waiting for people, waiting for life. And unfortunately for moviegoers, that theme gets hammered home a bit too effectively. Audiences will leave the theater having waiting for something that didn't come.

The film provides laughs, some out of knowing sympathy, some out of pure slapstick and more than a few giggles at the campy style of the film, which isn't always intentional. What it does not provide is a payoff.

The fundamental problem with the film is simple: It never quite decides what kind of movie it wants to be. Is it a love story? Is it a comedy in the style of films inspired by Saturday Night Live? Or is it a movie about the impact of geopolitics on the individual? 
 

The entire film takes place in and around J.F.K. Airport in New York, and as such there is little in the way of plot. Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorsky, a traveler from the fictional nation of Krakozia, who is in New York for some unknown reason. While Navorsky's flight is over the Atlantic, a revolution breaks out in Krakozia, erasing the national government and invalidating Viktor's passport. 

Viktor is then forced by Department of Homeland Security officer Frank Dixon (the always-entertaining Stanley Tucci) to stay in the airport's international terminal until the situation in Krakozia stabilizes. Viktor's activities in the airport form the spine of the film. 

And that spine sags under the weight of contrived plot devices and distractions of varying degrees of absurdity. The major story thread involves Viktor's relationship with Dixon, which is unnecessarily adversarial. 

A secondary plot, which disappointingly stays secondary, centers on Viktor's courtship of a stunning flight attendant, Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones). This plot is full of literary references that don't translate and symbolism that doesn't fit.

Those looking to see a great performance by Tom Hanks will find one. The goofball Hanks from Big takes turns with the more serious Hanks from Philadelphia and Apollo 13. But his antics aren't enough to get The Terminal off the runway. 

The Terminal

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones

Verdict: A somewhat enjoyable, but hollow, experience.

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