MOVIE REVIEW

MOVIE / MUSIC

The Terminal

If you've travelled by air you may have experienced the trauma of having to spend a few hours to even a day at an airport terminal because of some delay. But surely never 6 months as is the case of our terminally struck Tom Hanks who gets stuck at New York's JFK airport!

Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), a citizen of the fictional tiny Eastern European nation of Krakozhia, arrives at JFK airport where his passport and visa are no longer valid because his country is in a state of civil unrest. He cannot be deported too as his country is at war. He can't risk stepping out into New York without being arrested. The result: he cannot enter the Big Apple, though he can see it through the glass doors. What does he do? With no valid citizenship, he is forced to take indefinite residence in the airport's expansive international arrivals terminal.

Viktor finds his way around to get food and money, taking rewards from pushing trolleys to a job of a painter, mason, making himself part of the airport community. He befriends Latino food-service worker Enrique, an African-American baggage handler, and a janitor Gupta (Kumar Pallana) from India. Enter beautiful flight attendant Amelie (Catherina Zeta-Jones), his love interest. Viktor also helps in some matchmaking for Enrique with a customs employee (Zoë Saldana).

But all this friendship worries Frank (Stanley Tucci), the airport's Director of Customs & Border Protection, who comes up with one scheme after another to get rid of the stranger. What happens to Viktor? Does love catch up with him or does he catch his flight back home? Find out in this emotionally charged romantic-comedy.

Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is delightful and so is John Williams' music score. Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me If You Can) brings in an astonishing full-scale set which is brilliant.

The Terminal is based on the true-life story of an Iranian man Merhan Nasseri who, after his documents were stolen, was forced to live at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris from August 1988 to August 2006.

The DVD has no extra baggage… read bonus material, which is sad, considering that the film was well received all over the world. Many would've loved to have watched the behind-the-scene antics of Gupta, the stressed out Frank and the slippery Amelie.

— Verus Ferreira

BIG Home Video, Rs 499/-