June 21, 2004 -- The latest pairing of Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg is an engaging, lighthearted comedy about a man stuck in an airport for nine months for diplomatic reasons. The story is as thin as tissue paper, but it does have a lot of important underlying political themes. The acting is great by a splendid cast, headed by Tom Hanks, Stanley Tucci, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The story is engaging and funny. The characters are well-defined and interesting. The story does fall apart somewhat in the final act.

Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man whose country erupts into civil war as he is on a jet headed for New York. When he lands, the U.S. government no longer honors his passport, or diplomatically recognizes his country. He is in diplomatic limbo. Confined to the international section of New York's Kennedy Airport, he will be arrested if he leaves the airport. Even though he can't speak the language at first, Navorski makes the best of his situation, making a kind of bedroom for himself in an unused part of the airport. He learns to earn money by various means, some of them quite clever. He also forms alliances with people who work in the airport, trading favors for food. He is a bit like a modern version of Robinson Cruso (a role much like Hanks Hanks played in “Cast Away”).

Frank Dixon (played by Stanley Tucci of “The Core”) is head of immigration services at the airport. Navorski is an embarrassment to him. Dixon assumed that Navorski would leave the airport and become someone else's problem. Dixon resorts to a variety of underhanded schemes to try to entice Navorski to break the law so he can be detained, but Navorski outwits Dixon at every turn. He finds ways to survive within the rules of the airport. He even becomes a hero when he outwits Dixon and helps to save a man's life at the same time. He earns the respect of many airport employees. This makes Dixon even more angry and more determined to get the best of Navorski. Even though he wants to get rid of Navorski, he won't break the rules to do it. He follows the laws and rules rigorously.

Dixon is a very clever man, but he lacks compassion, he's inflexible and he has no respect for people from other countries. He's not really evil, but his rigid code of conduct causes him to do inhumane things to people who are at his mercy. His retiring boss (played by Eddie Jones) tells Dixon he should bend the rules now and then in order to give people a break, but Dixon can't bring himself to do it. It appears that the character of Dixon represents a certain ugly American type, such as President George Bush and some of the more obnoxious members of the Christian right who use their moral code as an excuse to kick people, or even countries around.

The whole idea of this story is that what all people share in common is vastly more important than their cultural differences. Small-minded people tend to exaggerate the differences in religion and cultures. They use those differences to fuel their hatred and to justify their inhumane treatment of others, and Dixon certainly falls into that category. On the other side of the coin is Navorski and his big circle of friends in low places at the airport. Among his best friends are a pretty stewardess, Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones of “Chicago”), a feisty janitor with lots of conspiracy theories, Gupta (Kumar Pallana), a shy food service worker, Enrique Cruz (Diego Luna of “Y Tu Mamá También”), who has a crush for a pretty INS employee, Dolores Torres (Zoë Saldana “Drumline”), and take-charge baggage handler Joe Mulroy (Chi McBride). These people form a little community at the airport. They help each other, and even make huge sacrifices for each other, despite their differences. One of the messages of the story is, if these people can get along and respect each other, why not the rest of us?

The story does lose its way at the end of the film, partly because the subplot of the romance between Navorski and Amelia doesn't really pan out. There is a bit of melodrama at the end of the film that gets in the way of the story, too. But most of the film works very well thanks mostly to the terrific performances by Hanks, Tucci and the rest of the cast. Another big plus is the gigantic set designed by Alex McDowell, who was the production designer for this film (he also was the production designer for Spielberg's “Minority Report”). The fully-functioning airport terminal set looks incredibly authentic and provides the perfect generic, anonymous setting for this tale of a man without a country. The cinematography, by Janusz Kaminski, who frequently teams with Spielberg, is also excellent. Spielberg's direction is also what one expects from a master. This isn't a great movie, but it is a good one. It is funny and heartwarming and it has a message too. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2004 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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