Terminal

Tom Hanks plays Victor Navorski in Terminal, the story of a man who falls through the cracks when he arrives in the International terminal of an unnamed NYC airport and his visa is denied because a coup overtook his country while he was airborne, making his current passport and visa invalid. Authorities can't allow him to leave the airport and enter NY, but they can't let him to return to his homeland either because his country has ceased to exist. As airport head honcho Dixon (Stanley Tucci) says, "You are a citizen of nowhere." Interesting concept, right? That's what I thought initially. I was even more intrigued when a friend whispered that Spielberg "borrowed" this idea from an actual person in Paris, Merhan Karimi Nasseri, who has been living at the Charles De Gaulle Airport for seventeen years under similar circumstances. How can society allow this to happen to human beings, one might wonder. However, Spielberg doesn't want you to think about that for too long. Somewhere amid the large Burger King and Starbucks signs that make up the shopping area where Navorski spends his days, Spielberg decides to steer away from the inherent social commentary and feeds the plot into a grinder in order to collect as much sentimental goo as possible. All in all, Nasseri is far more interesting than Navorski, probably because his story doesn't have the two-hour happy ending resolution that Spielberg provides. Also, have you ever noticed that Spielberg is somewhat obsessed with father-son stories? Think "Minority Report," "Indiana Jones," "Catch Me If You Can," "A.I.," -- you get the idea. Despite that this isn't Spielberg's best, Hanks is terrific. What amazes me about him is that no matter how ubiquitous his face is (in large part due to Spielberg films), he never ceases to truly become whatever character he is playing.