Thinking of Steven Spielberg, I come up with few big movie names like the Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, E.T. and the list goes on and on. However, I would have recommended the more delightful, lighter-scale comedy by this terrific director - The Terminal (2004).
The Terminal has a very interesting opening, when Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) is not allowed to access to the United States due to a revolution in his country, Krakozhia. Losing his citizenship, Navorski is trapped in the JFK international airport for nine months waiting for the end of the war, so that he gains the right to step on the land of the United States. In a strange environment, Viktor however makes his way to become the master of a new environment. Later, he meets his love - Amelia (Catherine Zeta Jones). One day, he explains to Amelia the reason coming to New York is to collect an autograph of a jazz player. His father is a jazz enthusiast and he wants to get an autograph of 57 jazz musicians. Unfortunately, he died before collecting the last autograph of the jazz player, and Viktor comes to fulfill his father's wish.
Apart from Steven Spielberg for the wonderful plot, another great credit goes to Tom Hanks for his amazing performance in The Terminal. Playing as a non-English-speaker from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakozhia, Hanks plays with the accent very well and looks pretty heavy in his ill-fitting suit. He enlightens the role of a very honest, humble and virtuous man, which also makes Viktor so likable and popular later.
The essential appeal in The Terminal is perhaps the theme of waiting. 'What are you waiting for?' the question is frequently asked. Some wait for the delayed flight. Some work for tedious job just to hold the retirement fund. Others wait for true love to grow in the place where it won't. Viktor waits for the chance to step on the land of the New York City, Amelia waits for her man to change his heart. People come and go. The airport is the perfect setting to throw us the question, what is life waiting for? We wait the destiny for the right person, right timing and right decision. We are waiting for the uncertainty. It might be a beauty, or bitterness. Who knows?
Yet, Viktor tells us that apart from waiting, perhaps we can do something more about it. He sets himself a nice bed, stays in the bookstore everyday for learning English and even earns money by helping people to return the luggage carts. In one scene, he even helps a desperate Russian man with undocumented drug for the latter's dying father, by claiming it is 'medicine for goat'. Steven Spielberg adds in all these tiny details to tell us that aside waiting for what you want, we can create more beauty out from lives.
Life is waiting, and perhaps it worths more when you shed light and color during the process.
