When I rewatched Before Night Falls, I realized I must have seen it for the first time before Y tu mamá también. I’m trying to remember whether or not it was the same with this film. It’s certainly possible—I didn’t see Y tu mamá también until 2005 or ’06, and this is the sort of movie I would’ve watched with family members, likely around the time it came out on DVD. But even though Diego Luna’s role in it isn’t huge, I remember him standing out to me, and I feel like I probably recognized him from Y tu mamá también.
When Viktor Navorski flies into JFK, he has no idea what’s waiting for him at customs. His country, Krakozhia, experienced a military coup while he was in the air, nullifying his passport and travel visa. Suddenly rendered stateless, he can’t legally leave the airport to enter New York City, but he can’t fly back home either. Frank Dixon, the field commissioner at JFK, can’t arrest him unless he tries to leave the airport, so Viktor decides to take up residence in the terminal.
This Steven Spielberg movie is inspired by the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian man who lived in Charles de Gaulle Airport in 1988 after he too was deemed stateless. However, the film is decidedly fictionalized—the real story is much sadder—so I wouldn’t technically count it as whitewashing, even if it’s still a dubious move to make the lead character from a made-up Eastern European nation instead.
It's an interesting film, even if it’s uncomfortable in places and awfully pat in others. It uses Spielberg’s trademark sentimentality to good effect, showing us how Viktor becomes a fixture within the makeshift JFK community. Despite the frustration and indignity of what he’s going through—not to mention his concerns about the war in his country and the confusion of the language barrier—he keeps his head up. While he’s portrayed as a little buffoonish at times, he’s also resourceful, tenaciously figuring out different ways to survive living in the terminal and how to get what he needs. The staff at JFK, from the janitors to the store employees to the customs officials, are fascinated by his strange predicament, and he manages to win most of them over sooner or later.
There’s some reductive ideas about immigration here, but they actually come from the antagonistic Dixon rather than from Viktor or any of the immigrant characters. For example, there’s a scene where Dixon tries to rid himself of the problem of Viktor by trying to start asylum proceedings for him. He assures Viktor that establishing a credible fear can be about “basically anything,” and that most asylum seekers “never show up before the judge” for their hearing anyway. Meanwhile, some of the airport employees Viktor befriends are immigrants themselves, and they’re varied, human characters that the film wants us to root for. And a moving scene where Viktor is brought in to translate for a desperate Russian man is one of the highlights of the film.
Plenty of recognizable faces here, with everyone turning in good work. Tom Hanks’s performance as Viktor does lean a little hard into the “clueless foreigner” thing at times, but in the scenes where Viktor is given perspective and honesty, he always delivers. Stanley Tucci is effective as the exasperated, unyielding Dixon, and Catherine Zeta-Jones gets the job done as Amelia, a flight attendant who catches Viktor’s eye. Some of the airport employees include Zoe Saldaña, Chi McBride, and Barry Shabaka Henley, and this time around, I was surprised to also recognize Corey Reynolds in a minor role (these days, I know him from Resident Alien, but at this time, he would’ve been just a few years out from his Tony nomination for Hairspray.)
Diego Luna plays Enrique Cruz, another of the employees at JFK. He loads the in-flight meals onto the planes, and he comes to an arrangement with Viktor to get him food—because of the coup, Viktor can’t exchange his Krakozhian money, so he’s scrounging to eat. However, he spends every day filling out forms for Saldaña’s Torres, a customs officer that Enrique has a massive crush on, and Enrique exchanges meals for information about her hobbies and preferences.
It’s framed as sweet, but it’s a little weird too. Enrique tells Viktor, “She’s a wild stallion, and you’ll help me break her,” even though we see no evidence of that characterization from Torres. She’s serious and focused on her job, and Enrique is probably intimidated about talking to her, but that means she needs “breaking”? Also, facilitating their courtship through Viktor is fine, but it would come off better with more scenes of them interacting together after Viktor has broken the ice.
Still, Luna plays it well. I loved his unabashed delight when Enrique discovers what Torres does for fun outside of work, and at one point he endearingly pleads with Viktor, saying, “I promise you, you’re gonna be really fat with all the food I’m gonna give you.” He’s also a lot of fun in a scene where some of Viktor’s airport buddies are helping him put on a good show for Amelia—when he plays the waiter at the “restaurant” table Viktor has set up for the two of them, I love when Enrique nervously places Amelia’s napkin in her lap, looking dreamy-eyed at her the whole time, and then distractedly tosses Viktor’s onto his arm. Funny little bit of business!
Recommend?
In General – I think so, as long as you’re aware going in of some of the reductiveness and don’t mind some schmaltz. This is ultimately a nice film with an uplifting message about human connection.
Diego Luna – I would. Even though it isn’t a very big role, Luna is fun and likable in it, despite the dubious aspects of Enrique’s storyline.
Warnings
Language, drinking/smoking/drug references, sexual references, a little violence, and thematic elements.
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