The Terminal (2004)

Many years ago, when the blog wasn't even a remote idea, I was on a Tom Hanks watching spree. I don't know why, but I wanted to watch all of his movies. The Terminal I kept avoiding because I thought it was about someone terminally ill —no, I didn't read plots back then either. Today, after seeing it was from Spielberg, I decided to check it out. And quite frankly, I'm shocked Spielberg made such a film as it is so different. In a good way. 

The film is about Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), a man from the fictional Eastern European nation of Krakozhia who becomes stuck in the terminal of New York's JFK Airport as his country has been taken over in a coup, the US does not recognise the new nation and the borders of Krakozhia are closed. Forced to stay in the International Transit section until the war cools down, Viktor makes the airport his home and develops friendships with the people who work there.

As you can tell, the plot to The Terminal is far from being believable and realistic —it is indeed so far-fetched it could be classified as science fiction. It doesn't make a lot of sense either as it's often illogical, and there's a romantic subplot —actually, there's two of them— that makes the film quite confusing as it's hard to understand whether the story is supposed to be about immigration or just a love story. Despite this, despite the level of corny and cheesy it reaches, the thin and lighthearted story is an engaging, heartwarming one with a lot of cut and funny moments, one of those stories that make you laugh and cry and feel good.

And that happens because The Terminal cares more about its characters than the story it tells. Well-written characters with a nice characterization and development you won't find in here as pretty much all of them are stereotypes with no depth or realism whatsoever. However, there's something charming about them that makes you care about them and feel sympathy for them.

Especially toward Viktor who is beautifully portrayed by Tom Hanks. While it's not an Oscar-worthy performance, Hanks is totally believable as the naive, extremely trusting and always full of hopes man who finds himself in a limbo, accent, mannerism and all. He doesn't have a very good chemistry with Catherine Zeta-Jones, which is why the romance between their characters doesn't work, but he comes across as such a nice guy you feel hurt when he feels hurt.

DreamWorks Pictures

As for the rest of the cast, they are okay. Stanley Tucci, however, deserves a mention. He plays Dixon, the asshole/temporary customs director who tries his best to prevent Viktor from leaving the airport. Essentially, he is the villain. And he would be just a villain if it wasn't for the layers added to the character by Tucci's performance.

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Genre

Biography | Comedy | Drama

Director

John Lee Hancock

Country

UK | Australia | USA

Cast

Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, Paul Giamatti, Bradley Whitford, B. J. Novak, Jason Schwartzman, Kathy Baker, Melanie Paxson, Rachel Griffiths, Ronan Vibert, Kristopher Kyer, Victoria Summer

Storyline

After 20 years, when she's financially strapped, author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) finally considers Walt Disney's (Tom Hanks) offer to make a film of her book, Mary Poppins, but won't approve unless Disney does it as she wants. So she goes to California, and while working on bringing the character of Mary Poppins to life, she starts reflecting on her childhood, upon which the book is based.

Opinion

Although this film has been on my watch-list for a while, I was reluctant because of some negative reviews I've heard and read. People complaining about Walt Disney being nothing like the man portrayed by Tom Hanks, others complaining about this being not a biopic worthy of such a man. Well, I'm not sure those people have quite understood what the film is really about.

Saving Mr. Banks actually tells the story of the making of the Mary Poppins film, and if it has to be considered a biography, it is surely not Walt Disney's but P.L. Travers's. Now, the fact that the story is more or less accurate, and that maybe there is a spoonful of sugar too much to make the film suitable for families is another thing.

Having said that, Saving Mr. Banks is a feel-good dramatic comedy, both witty and sentimental, that draws you in.

The film praises imagination and its power to help some grow, by lighting up childhood and its natural path towards adulthood. It also praises those people that, even though they have grown, are still capable of dreaming, like P.L. Travers or Walt Disney.

There are some outstanding performances too. Emma Thompson play P.L. Travers beautifully. Cold and definitely not likable in the first part (as required), she brings out all the emotions, and the serious aspects of her character. Tom Hanks does a nice job as Walt Disney and seems to be enjoying himself but this is not one of his best achievements. The supporting cast offers strong performances, especially Colin Farrell, who brings vitality and interest in the parallel story about Travers's childhood. 

Don’t you ever stop dreaming. You can be anyone you want to be. - Travers Goff

Zemeckis Returning To 3D - MAJOR MATT MASON Has Greenlight With Tom Hanks

You may have heard that Robert Zemeckis is back into live action with a Denzel Washington topped 2D thriller in FLIGHT. So what's next on his plate?

Back to 3D! Zemeckis is casting Tom Hanks (or is Hanks casting Zemeckis as director?) in the Universal distributed MAJOR MATT MASON (which we covered back in June), an adaptation of the children's classic 1960's action figure. Remember SPEED? Yes that now classic "movie on a bus" starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock - was written by Canadian Graham Yost (who's father, Elwy Yost is very well known in Ontario - actually sent Graham to school late once with a note saying: "Graham is late for school because I had him stay up late to watch Citizen Kane."). Needless to say, the passion of movies was inherited. Graham Yost has co-written MAJOR MATT MASON with Tom Hanks and I expect nothing short of a STELLAR story from this tandem.

Here's Graham Yost on what to expect:
“The story is set on the moon, near future, and it’s a team of people on a base on the moon, on the south pole of the moon. And of course everything goes wrong. There’s no bad guys. There’s no aliens. Nothing like that. It’s just, can you survive? It’s really fun, and it’s just been a blast working with Tom on that. We had such a good time on ‘From Earth to the Moon’ that it’s sort of like, ‘We’ve got to go back to the moon. Some way, somehow, let’s go back to the moon.’”

“Who knows what’s going to happen with [timing], because Tom is very busy now acting in a bunch of things. I think he’s doing ‘Cloud Atlas‘ now over in Europe, [and then] I think probably going into the Maersk Alabama thing (Somalian pirate drama ‘Captain Phillips,’ directed by Paul Greengrass). So we’ll see if it happens. I hope it does, because we both love lunar exploration.”

I love that this is going to be a realistic survival thriller. No aliens. Just the lunar elements. And the Tom Hanks - Robert Zemeckis chemistry? Who can argue with that? FORREST GUMP? CAST AWAY? Simply amazing movies. Throw in 3D which Zemeckis knows like the back of his hand and we have a truly event worthy movie to look forward to.

Sources: Reuters | The Wrap via Collider