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Have you ever had your flight delayed and had to spend the night at the airport? Well Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) finds himself in a unique situation where he is trapped at the JFK airport because his home country of Krakozhia has undergone a coup and his travel Visa gets revoked. Viktor quickly adapts to the situation by making home at one of the terminals that is being renovated and then begins returning empty luggage carts in order to earn money. Along the way he befriends some of the airport staff including a mischievous Indian janitor named Grupta (Kumar Pallana), a baggage handler named Joe (Chi McBride), a love struck food-service worker named Enrique (Diego Luna), and an emotionally vulnerable airline stewardess Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones). However, all of this does not go over well with Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), the chief of security at the airport, who attempts to get Viktor out of his hair any way possible.

Tom Hanks easily fits into the role of Viktor Navorski, an immigrant from a made up Baltic republic of Krakozhia. He starts out with no knowledge of the English language and slowly develops a bigger vocabulary as he progresses throughout the film. Hanks does an admirable job delivering a believable rendition of the Slavic language and his use of a heavy accent is authentic and consistent unlike that of many actors. Catherine Zeta-Jones has been cast as a very beautiful stewardess who carries on an awkward relationship with a married man. However, neither her character nor the script truly taps into Zeta-Jone’s superb acting ability and only concentrates on her good looks.

What could have easily have been a dark comedy, given the gravity of the situation, has been turned into an uplifting, “feel-good” story by Steven Spielberg. The movie starts out very realistically despite the absurd situation of a person not being able to leave an airport and then having to actually live there. However the further the movie progresses, the more fanciful it gets - with Viktor building a life-size fountain in one the terminals to show his love for Amelia. Overall the movie is shot well and it is surprising how much can be done by only using the confines of an airport as the set of a movie.

While the movie is very enjoyable to watch with all the humor and high-quality acting, the irrationality and silliness of the story overwhelms the viewer towards the end of the film when we find out why Viktor has come to America. What could have been a compelling story about immigration or an adjustment to a foreign environment is turned into a senseless quest of one man that has almost no meaning to most viewers despite what Spielberg may think. Instead of a powerful drama, the movie turns out to be nothing more than a humorous fairy tale that’s funny to watch but ultimately leaves you empty inside.