The Terminal (Tom Hanks)

(Amazon UK link)

In the past few years, we have managed to watch a DVD about once or twice a month at most. Since we are often given new ones for birthdays and Christmas, our drawer of to-be-watched films has stayed fairly well replenished. However this year we have allocated Monday evenings, whenever possible, to watch a DVD together. So as our new supply was beginning to run low, I found the ones we watched and liked at least ten years ago, deciding I could deal with seeing them again. Last night my husband’s selection was ‘The Terminal’.

We first saw this film on Christmas Day 2006. The day is seared in my mind as a rather depressing one. Our older son had left home and was working on a ship the other side of the world. The friends with whom we had shared Christmas for the previous few years had gone back to live in the United States. Other friends, whom we had invited for lunch, were unavailable. So just three of us sat down to a traditional Christmas meal, feeling far from festive. After lunch we decided to watch this film, which our older son had recommended highly.

Eleven years later, all we could remember of ‘The Terminal’ was that Tom Hanks spent a long time living at an airport, due to political circumstances. We recalled liking the film, and one or two cameo moments. We also remembered having watched the ‘extras’, so we know that the airport terminal, in which most of the film takes place, was custom-designed and built in an old hangar, specifically for the filming.

The story opens with a general impression of an airport in New York - customs, passport control, and so on. Then we meet Viktor (Tom Hanks), a man from a small Eastern European country which apparently started a civil war while he was in the air. His passport had become invalid, as the US no longer recognised his country. So he could neither go out of the airport into New York, nor return to his home country. It doesn’t help that he has almost no English, relying on a phrase book to attempt to communicate. So he doesn’t understand what’s going on until he sees some news reports of violence and recognises his country…

Steven Spielberg directed this, and it’s a wonderful film: character-based, almost entirely, rather than having much plot as such. There’s a lot of low-key humour as Viktor teaches himself English, figures out ways to earn money so that he can eat, and makes himself a place to sleep in the airport. He is watched on security cameras by the airport customs staff, particularly the head (Stanley Tucci) who has no idea how to handle him…

Tom Hanks is excellent in this role, as a confused but likeable man who makes the most of his circumstances at every point. He is treated with suspicion at first by airport staff, but gradually breaks down their barriers. There’s also a low-key and bittersweet love interest featuring an air hostess (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who knows that she’s bad news, yet likes him despite herself.

We were mesmerised for an hour and a half. We had completely forgotten how it ended, and why Viktor was so keen to go to New York. We had not remembered any of the other characters, either, nor any of the interactions that work so well. We hadn’t remembered the mild slapstick humour that happens a few times on a slippery floor; it made us wince somewhat, but was so well choreographed that we smiled at times too.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes character-driven dramas with low-key humour and a feel-good ending. The rating is 12A (PG-13 in the US) and I think that’s about right. There’s some bad language, though nothing too ‘strong’, and some innuendoes, though nothing explicit. Violence on screen could be disturbing, however, as could some shouting and threatening that happens in an incident towards the end. I very much doubt if anyone under the age of about fourteen would find it of interest anyway as there’s not much action or story, and all the characters are adults.

The extras are well worth watching too, in my opinion, particularly those about the building of the set.

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews