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The Terminal is a big movie. Big director, big star, big expectations, big disappointment - at least at the box office. This isn't to say that I wasn't looking forward to the movie. Instead, it made me more more interested in seeing it, to see just how it failed.
It's the story of Viktor Navorski (Hanks), a man who finds himself stranded at New York's JFK airport when war breaks out in his home country of Krakozia during his flight, thus nullifying his passport. Unfortunately for Viktor, he speaks little to no English (at least at the beginning of the movie) so he doesn't really understand why he isn't being allowed in the States. However, thanks to the modern miracle of TV, he sees war coverage on the news and understands what has happened. Soon, he's living in the airport, learns English, gets a job doing terminal construction, becomes a hero to airport employees everywhere and gets involved with a beautiful flight attendant that looks remarkably like Catherine Zeta-Jones.
It's a series of bizarre events that you're supposed to believe, but which instead left me scratching my head. In all, they added up to a couple of hours of entertainment, that I hope to soon forget.
Here are my problems:
#1) Am I really supposed to believe that this guy learned to speak English so soon from only watching television and comparing a book in his language to a book in English. Granted, I only speak English, but it seemed a little too easy to me.
#2) The war in Krakozia. This war got more coverage on the news than most wars in countries I've never heard of. Sure, it's a movie, and Krakozia is just a made up country, but I wasn't buying it. Why not just say Iran or Jordan or at least something that'll give it a degree of believability.
#3) The "getting a job" part seemed a bit convenient. First he makes money by collecting quarters from abandoned luggage carts and then he's collecting $19/hour doing construction. Sure, America is the "land of opportunity" but I kept saying to myself - "whatever"!
#4) The airport employees rallying around Viktor?! This one really left me shaking my head. Am I really supposed to believe this?
#5) Catherine Zeta-Jones. I don't have a problem with her or her character. But when every man in the world wants to fall in love with this woman, are we expected to believe that she's gonna fall in love with a guy who lives in an airport terminal? Gimme a break!
#6) Stanley Tucci. Another case where I like the actor, and he played his role well, but as if were gonna believe that the guy is this big of a prick. Sure, there are pricks out there, but the manner in which he went out of his way to be a prick was just unbelievable.
All these points together (and I'm sure a few more that I can't think of off the top of my head) really left me wondering - do filmmakers really think we're this stupid? Sure, most (if not all) movies are filled with such contrivances. And sure, if you can suspend your disbelief for a couple of hours, the movie and its message really aren't that bad. But here, every single plot point was so contrived, there was really nothing I could relate to.
To top it all off, the DVD is bare. No special features whatsoever. Sure, there is a three-disc limited edition gift set available that's loaded with extras, but why not include at least some extras on the standard edition. Throw me a bone here. Who ever heard of releasing a DVD this way?! I felt so ripped off - and I didn't even pay for the DVD!
Maybe I was just in the wrong mood. Looking back, the story was cute and you gotta love Tom Hanks who is really the only redeeming factor here. But most of the scenarios in this movie were just so far-fetched, I could't be bothered to invest myself in the story.
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