Tom Hanks talks funny, but survives almost on his own on a different deserted island.

In a goofy twist of fate, Victor Navorski (Tom Hanks) arrives in New York to find that his country has been destroyed by revolution. As a result, the US Border Patrol won't allow him entry to the country as his visa is no longer recognized, and at the same time they cannot return him to his country of origin as it is no longer recognized. He makes due, after kindly allowed to stay within the international lounge. The weasly Border Patrol overlord, Frank Dixon, played well by Stanley Tucci, tries to get Victor to "break out" of the terminal by removing some of the luxuries and niceties that he discovers as he gets along.

The movie was well played, but required quite a bit of suspended disbelief.

First, in the event that a country truly took the route that is portrayed in the movie, its traveling citizens would probably either find their visa honored, or asylum offered. At one point, they did try to offer Victor asylum, but he didn't get the subtext through which they were trying to suggest he could achieve this release from the terminal; "if you're scared to go home, you can stay here..." they prompt. "It's my home, I'm not scared of it," he replies.

Second, although the film does stretch to something like a month, there are little snaps as Dixon notices Victor wandering around and seems amazed that he's still there. Moments later, it seems as though Dixon had been obsessed with his presence the whole time. Probably a rearrangement of scene in editing, or perhaps a different mood tried for one scene that worked, but wasn't continuing the same line as before.

Also, Victor seems to not be a dunderhead after all. It's just a language thing that he actually very quickly overcomes by comparing magazines written in English and his native (we assume) Kracozia [sp], which looks mighty Cyrillic. I could understand teaching yourself to read thus, but since the alphabet is so different, could you really teach yourself to speak and listen correctly?

He befriends some of the workers in the airport, none of whom take the time to try to help him understand the idea of asylum, and only a few of whom help him through his plight. While I realize the typical airport fast-food worker might not have the wherewithal to do anything, you'd think that hottie border patrol officer Torres would have thought to mention it to someone other than Dixon.

He ends up finding work with a construction crew, who at first think he's just part of another crew trying to show them up. Wouldn't one think that in the next few minutes after discussing his situation that they'd figure out who he is. Sure, they'd want to help, but all the good union workers would throw a tizzy to find that this "unacceptable" person was being paid under the table, as we later learn.

So we find he's a master linguist, a compassionate translator who quickly learns enough of the law to help a fella out ("it's for his goat"), and a master craftsman who can jump in on a construction crew.

Finally, a useless love interest in the nice-but-slutty stewardess Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta Jones) picks up. I understand that it's more likely that a stew would have reason to pass through an airport enough to be an intermittent character, but certainly there were other, more frequent visitors that could have tilted more toward the "let's get you outta here" subplot.

In all, a cute, entertaining movie, with a strong, if funny sounding, character played by Hanks. He sticks to his guns throughout, accepting the situations in which he's forced with dignity and without sacrificing his pride. He does the mostly right thing, except for helping the fella with the drugs (the righter thing would have been to try to find him another way to have his drugs shipped...they were going to let the fella fly, just not take the medicine--not recreational drugs...), and arguably working as an illegal alien. He doesn't break the big laws, though. He sees himself through the difficulties of living in an airport until his situation can be resolved all the while maintaining his steadfast character.

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