There is plenty of humour: Hanks eyeballing a security camera the bluntness of Kumar Pallana’s ( The Royal Tenenbaums) supporting character Gupta slapstick slips on wet floors. Hanks is Viktor Navorski, an Eastern European man who is denied entry to the United States and is then unable to return to his home country (the fictional Krakozhia) due to a military coup. The premise is simple, but no less serious considering its basis on real life events. The Terminal’s success can first be measured by its $220 million return at the box office: by no means Spielberg’s most profitable film, but an impressive figure nonetheless. Spielberg knows exactly what he’s doing here – there is no attempt to make Andrew Niccol ( The Truman Show) and Sacha Gervasi’s ( November Criminals) sentimental screenplay into anything more than it needs to be – and as a result, The Terminal is fun to watch and, perhaps most impressively, completely and utterly life-affirming. Partially inspired by the true story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri’s 18-year stay in an airport, Spielberg’s early 2000s work transcends its undoubted flaws with its heart-warming messages of acceptance and human connection.
After his heavy historical films of the 90s such as Schindler’s List(1993) and Saving Private Ryan(1998), Spielberg clearly wanted to focus on lighter subject matters, first with the stylish sci-fi Minority Report (2002), then with the smooth crime caper Catch Me If You Can (2002), and finally with The Terminal. The Terminal, which stars Tom Hanks ( Philadelphia, Castaway) as an Eastern European tourist stranded in JFK airport due to a passport issue, does not rank at the top of Steven Spielberg’s directorial oeuvre. Spielberg’s airport-based, slapstick-style The Terminal is cheesy, saccharine, simplistic – and it’s absolutely wonderful.
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