I don't remember this well enough to rate it.

The Terminal (PG-13)
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So this guy named Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) flies into New York City, to keep a promise to his father. What that promise is, I won't reveal, but I'll say that it involves Jazz. He comes from a country called Krakozhia, and when his plane lands, there is a military coup back home, and since the United States doesn't recognize the new government, his passport is invalid and he's not allowed onto U.S. soil. Also his home country won't allow any flights into Krakozhia, I guess. So Viktor is now a man without a country. He can't leave the airport terminal. Which is especially hard at first, since he doesn't speak English and despite efforts, no one can really explain to him what's happened.

Eventually he figures it out, though, and soon teaches himself English. He befriends some of the workers at the airport, and falls in love with a stewardess named Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones). That's complicated, since she's having an affair with a married man, plus she doesn't know the truth about Viktor's situation. Also there's this guy named Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), who's in charge of the airport, and isn't happy about Viktor being there. With all this going on, all sorts of drama and comedy ensues. Will Viktor ever get to enter America and fulfill his promise? What is his promise? Will he ever get to return home? If you answered "yes" to all these questions, you probably weren't paying close enough attention to the second one. But in any event, it's a decent movie, well worth checking out at least once. Once was probably enough for me, but I wouldn't blame you a bit if you wanted to see it more than that, yourself....

I originally had my review under "dramedy," but now, rather than move it to the new "seriocomedy" category, I'm thinking maybe it was sort of a quirky movie. I kind of remember it being more depressing than anything else, but... it was amusing, and the whole situation is quite out of the ordinary, obviously.


quirky index