The Terminal

4/5 stars

This was a fun movie, and probably the best fictional movie Andrew and I have seen in a while. The first several minutes are very frustrating, as Viktor Navorski (Hanks) lands in New York and is taken into custody in customs. His country has undergone a civil revolution, and all travel permits have been suspended for its citizens. Navorski’s passport is no good. But the frustrating part is that Navorski doesn’t speak much English (only what he has in a traveller’s cheat sheet in front of him), so he doesn’t know what’s going on. The movie picks up, after he starts living in the terminal, learning English and interacting with the terminal’s regular employees.

Side note: I think I really embarrassed Andrew. There was a guy two rows back from us that was talking on his cell phone. Andrew looked back, and then I looked back, made direct eye contact (or so I thought), and gave him a dirty look. He continued talking. I turned around again, and said fairly quietly, “Get off your phone.” Apparently it was too quiet to break through his more-interesting-than-the-movie conversation. So, I turned around again, and said again, “Get off your phone.” This time, though, I’m pretty sure that at least half the theater could hear me. Believe it or not, the message got through to him this time. He got off his ^%$#@ phone. What an ass.