it's not that the production value, acting or any other aspects that make
up a film because it was a decent effort, far from harsh criticism, and that alone
should be saying something at the current sad state of affairs in hollywood right now.
the problem is the story. there are too many plot holes, inconsistancies and impractical
situations to be listed. i find it impossible to believe that a foreign man
gets slip through immigrantion hole and lives in jfk airport for 9+ months?
just how many lines of coke did the writers do before coming up with that?
i'll mention several things that did not make any sense to me.

1. why didn't viktor try to use the media to his advantage? i can understand
his predicament of not having a country to call of his own and not speaking
the universal language of capitalism but when he gradually picks up english
and befriends several airport workers, why didn't he ask for their help? he
could have easily asked them to call up any of the local news stations or newspaper
reporters and give them this potentially interesting story and win the hearts
of manhattanites. this could lead to his exposure to the world he's forbidden
to enter and get the head of immigrantion's attention. why in the world did
viktor not asked to be transferred to his country's embassy? or i should say,
his former country, that way they could all have shared the same situation
and stay in neutral ground and not enter american soil. isn't that what embassies
and consulates are for? also, if his entire business in manhattan was to get
a signature of a saxophone player, why didn't he just escape the airport for
30 minutes(more like 2 hours if he's traveling by taxi in nyc) with help of
the trio? it's not like dixon's watching viktor 24/7, i mean, he IS the head
of security over there, doesn't he have thousands of visitors coming through?
is it really that difficult to slip past the guards in a crate for an afternoon?
was it the 'honnourable' thing to wait 9+ months to finally get out, and he
did do it illegally since he did not receive dixon's signature on his special
visa. so what was the difference between illegally walking out of the airtport
and illegally slipping out of the airport? also, why wasn't there any other
krakozhians on that plane as viktor? i find it hard to believe that a plane
originating from that country had only one native passenger.

2. diego luna, you seriously need an advisor. what a shame, he made a splash
in the festival circuit with y tu mama tambien back in 2001 and went
on to do several half-assed hollywood productions like this one and dirty dancing
sequel. what happen dude?! he was so promising back in the day but now he seems
like he's just scrapping any work in states. it's understandable that he got
attached to this pile of turd because of spielberg's name alone but he seriously
needs to make some wise script choices and not depend on his adorable face(yes
i'm confident enough to admit that some guys do have better face than i) to
attract crowd. his tambien alum, gael garcia bernal, is doing unbelievably
well in terms of picking out great films to work on, such as amores perros
and my second favourite movie of the year the motorcycle diaries. for the
most part, bernal stayed in mexico to work with highly prolific native directors
instead of chasing high paycheques and the quest for world domination. luna's
character's side story was equally un-believable. luna's character sends viktor
to ask some girl buncha random questions in order to woo her heart and finally
ships a ring to her. am i to seriously believe that the girl would actually
go for this? i dunno, maybe the black trekkie girls are weird that way, or
maybe she went head over heels when she saw the famous face from meh-hee-co
for the first time sipping watered-down soda, i dunno. maybe i should send
someone over to alison lohman and ask her some questions, maybe she'll come
fetch me to her palm spring home.

3. sure viktor was a good son by enduring all that for his father but did
he really need to go that far for something so trivial? the father's request
wasn't any significant and has only sentimental values that only his son could
appreciate. but i find it hard to believe that a father's legacy was represented
by buncha signatures of jazz musicians from another world and on a deathbed
would you honestly ask your son to do his final deed by going to america? it's
also one thing to appreciate the improvised music but quite another to send
letters after letters requesting the musicians' signatures and be obsessed
with it when someone doesn't send you one. and if he needed only one more signature
to complete the collection, why didn't he send subsequent letters to the last
dude and plea? or ask someone in states to go in person? or why didn't viktor
send luna's character on a mission instead of getting him to fetch food after
winning luna's girl's companionship? the musician was quite friendly with his
fans and it's not like a heart-felt letter wouldn't get him to sign his name.
the film begs to bend your suspense of belief too much for something so little
after all that hardship and trials this character went through. there's no
real satisfying release when the credits roll. sentimental bullshit i say.
it really would have made more sense if the peanut can really did contain his
father's ashes. maybe the film could have refer this back to the situation
in viktor's motherland, how his father wanted his family to have a better life
by coming to america and how he died without ever seeing the fruits of his
hardship and viktor finally gets to spread his ashes in central park or something.
wouldn't that be more meaningful??