"The Terminal"

I watched "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones last night. I'd been told it wasn't so great - another example of why I shouldn't listen to other peoples' opinions on whether or not to see a movie.

I thought it was very good. There were several good points about the movie. Stanley Tucci as the Customs bigwig was excellent. The cast of little people was great. The whole reason Viktor (Tom Hanks) was in NYC was to fulfill a promise to his dead father - it was a very poignant moment when he reveals it to Amelia (Zeta-Jones).

But that wasn't what affected me about the movie. Amelia, a flight attendant, is 39 and in a long term affair with a married man who keeps promising her he's leaving his wife. She's waiting. And waiting. She's staying in a relationship that isn't what she wants. She knows it, yet she stays.

Naturally, she and Viktor become friends. Romantic interest develops. During the times she and Viktor talk, her beeper goes off a couple of times and when it does, it's -him- and she has to go. During an important scene, she tells him about the bad relationship and he tells her about the promise to his father. He says "We all wait." She says "And what are you waiting for Viktor?"

He looks at her. He says "You. I wait for you."

I lost it.


The analogies are, to me, striking. B is Amelia - in a relationship that she doesn't really get from what she wants. Her beeper is bf - it intrudes on our time together and when it beeps, she has to go. I am Viktor, stuck in the terminal. Not stuck really, because he could leave if he wanted to. In a way the terminal is my love, my relationship with B. I'm not stuck - I stay because I want to. No, that's not quite right either. Viktor stayed in the terminal because for him there was no other course of action he could possibly take but to fulfill his promise to his father. For me, I stay because loving B and the possibility of having her in my life.. there is no other possible course of action I could take. The one person who's ever read this and left a comment (thank you Green!) said "Just keep the faith. You can't help who you want/love." It's not even a matter of faith really - there just is no other possible course my life can take now. My life, my future is to be with B. If that's where she wants her life, then we'll get there. Otherwise, at some point I'll have to accept that she doesn't want me and do something else.

There's a scene where Amelia and Viktor are having a private, romantic candlelit dinner. It's a close and obviously romantic and intimate moment. Then her beeper goes off - it's him. Viktor knows the beeper is him. Her immediate response is that she has to go. The moment is obviously dampened. I wish the next part of the scene would happen in real life - Amelia starts to leave. Viktor talks to her. She comes back and throws the beeper away.

Not long after that is when Viktor says "You. I wait for you". That's me. I wait for B. But as long as she has that beeper....


The saddest part I don't even want to mention because I'm afraid it's how my life will turn out.

Viktor doesn't get the girl. She stays with the other guy.

He leaves, alone.

Fuck.