User reviews

It's only about twice a decade that I run across a movie that really impresses me. It's usually an obscure film that I entered with no expectations -- but left blown away by its cinematic achievement.

I just saw such a film tonight. "The Visitor" A small independent production with zero-advertising. Made by Tom McCarthy whose prior film, "The Station Agent," was an imperfect, character-absorbed drama.

The star of this movie is an actor (Richard Jenkins) whom you'll recognize from his numerous roles as minor-characters, most notably the dead-patriarch in "Six Feet Under." All of the other actors are completely unknown, but notably talented.

The appeal of this film is its story. An aged, listless academic, whose wife died earlier, floats through his uninteresting life until something happens to jar him. What happens next is unexpected, interesting and poignant. It would ruin the story if I told it to you, so you'll have to trust me. Suffice it to say it's a story of rebirth.

Like most of my favorite films, it has comedy, pathos, surprises, authenticity and a philosophical examination of what it means to be human. In short, everything, even politics.

And the presentation is skillfully-crafted. McCarthy demonstrates what was good about his prior work without dragging it down with what was bad about that work.

See it.

Thomas McCarthy's 2nd film after the wonderful "Station Agent" is equally good, if not better. I can't recommend Richard Jenkins' performance any higher here. He plays a widowed professor who is drifting through life rather aimlessly until he visits his New York apartment and finds there are two people squatting there. I won't give away anything else, except to say that it'll be a shame if this film flies under the radar. Jenkins is a character actor that everyone recognizes, but that few of us know. Here he occupies the first third of the film practically alone, and reminds us in moments of the Jack Nicholson character from "About Schmidt" with his dry humor that is on display for his crabby piano teacher.

Don't you just love watching an actor up there alone who keeps you spellbound in a subtle way? That's how this movie starts, and gradually we come to meet the couple in Jenkins' apartment, and the mother of one of them. The movie flows economically and with much care, but by the end it creeps up on us and makes us feel glad along the way as well as making us pause and reflect on the state of our world.

Lovely, lovely movie.

I saw this film at Sundance (along with about twenty others). It was the only film I screened that ended with a standing ovation. The accolade was well-deserved. Richard Jenkins completely inhabits the professor, Walter Vale, unmoored by the death of his wife. Drifting, without purpose, grinding through his days, he thinks his life is over -- he is just taking up space. But when that space is invaded by a vibrant couple, Walter has an epiphany.

Richard Jenkins is not the only actor of note in this cast. Everyone is pitch-perfect. But particularly be on the lookout for Hiam Abbass. Every time she is on the screen is a delight. This is one of those rare films that you really do not want to end.

It would be easy to pigeon-hole this film as a topical drama dealing with an uncaring government system. But this film transcends all that. Instead it is a heartfelt film about what happens when people -- with all their desires and difficulties -- bump into one another to express the best part of their humanity. If this is the kind of movie you would like to see made more frequently in Hollywood, vote with your wallet this weekend, then go again and take some friends.

Thomas McCarthy's follow-up to the enchanting "The Station Agent" (2003) is another contemplative drama filled with subtle humor and a lot of humanity/passion for its characters. Walter (Richard Jenkins, "Six Feet Under") is a widowed college professor that meets two illegal immigrants - a Senegalese woman (Danai Gurira) and a Syrian man, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) -, living in his apartment in NYC. After the initial discomfort of the situation, Walter decides to help the young couple and an unlikely friendship is born.

"The Visitor" deals with human relationships and discusses post-9/11 America socio-political issues (the plight of immigrants, xenophobia, etc.) with no hidden agendas. McCarthy has proved himself as a sensitive director/writer, and he extracts a magnificent performance from Richard Jenkins, a character actor who gets his first leading role at the age of 60. Jenkins is fascinating to watch as an ordinary man trying to find himself; he gives one of the best male performances of the decade and I'd love if he got at least an Oscar nomination, since I can see him remaining in my top 5 by the end of the year, perhaps still as my favourite. I know that the movie's small indie weight and the fact that it was released early in the year will probably hurt his chances (the Independent Spirit Award could be his biggest reward), but if it's strongly campaigned, it might get a nod à la "The Savages" (even though I know he's not half big a name as Laura Linney). Anyway, I hope he gets some sort of recognition - he'll also be seen later this year in the Coens' "Burn After Reading". If you like human dramas, sensitive writing/directing and superb acting, you should check "The Visitor" - the finest 2008 release I've seen so far. 10/10.

Richard Jenkins' portrayal of lacklustre professor Walter is beautifully underplayed, somnambulistically acting out the various roles of his life as a stilted economics professor. The beginning scenes unravel artfully and launch into the story where Walter is abruptly introduced to the young couple (Tarek and Zainab).

The ensuing impromptu friendship that develops is well conceived. The wariness and strong-will of Zainab contrasts well against her boyfriend Tarek's more forthright relaxed nature. The interplay between Tarek, Zainab and Walter is at times awkward, at times touching. I felt that these quality performances go a long way towards forgiving the unlikely set of circumstances (and responses) that brought and kept the three characters together.

I thought the scenes where Walter learns to play the djembe were beautifully played; Walter's awkward but curious initiation to drumming and the (unexpected) expression of pure joy on his face while playing added believable depth to an otherwise restrained and austere performance.

Walter's exposure to the djembe perhaps underpins the films well-intentioned message – that our lives are enriched by living side-by side with other cultures. Good intentions aside, I think the second half of the film suffers because of the filmmaker's heavy-handed desire to go further and promote the idea that 'good people suffer in the hands of US immigration control'.

In my opinion producing a film with any agenda is problematic because it requires a degree of rationalisation and simplification which works against interesting characterisation. Life is very rarely straightforward – and when it is straightforward, it isn't interesting to watch.

In the case of the second half of The Visitor, I felt that this overarching requirement to show the characters in a positive light removed any sense of conflict the characters might have otherwise possessed. The story no longer had a life of it's own – and seemed to involve reaching a predetermined conclusion through any route possible.

The character of Tarek's (caring / strong / dignified) mother, fell short of the high-expectations that I'd built-up during the first half of the film. I felt her portrayal was lacking – and I didn't fully understand the function her character played. The subsequent relationship that develops between Walter and Mouna seemed gratuitous and left too many questions unanswered.

After watching this and Tom McCarthy's first film (The Station Agent), it's clear to me that McCarthy is an accomplished director / writer - who perhaps excels at directing character-based stories. I think this film suffers because halfway through the film McCarthy attempts to move focus from a rich exploration of character, to a slightly ill-conceived issue-based drama.

Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed The Visitor.

A genuinely unexpected gem. As he proved with his first film as a director and screenwriter, 2003's "The Station Agent", Thomas McCarthy knows how to convey the fine line between solitude and loneliness in his characters' lives with an emotional preciseness that doesn't call attention to itself. It's not surprising that McCarthy is an actor because he's able to capture the very subtle nuances in behavior in actors that make his work feel like Edward Hopper paintings come to life. As a result, you pay attention to a simple gesture, a passing glance, a resigned sigh. This time, his protagonist is Walter Vale, an enervated, middle-aged economics professor at a Connecticut college. Widowed and wholly lacking in professional motivation, he begrudgingly accepts an assignment to go to an academic conference at NYU and present a paper on globalization he really didn't write.

Coming back to a Greenwich Village flat he rarely uses, he is surprised to find a couple living there. Not squatters but unfortunate victims of a rental scam, they turn out to be illegal aliens, a Syrian percussionist named Tarek and his girlfriend Zainab, a Senegalese who makes and sells handcrafted jewelry. As withdrawn from life as Walter is, he slowly finds himself bonding with the couple and lets them stay indefinitely. Zainab is slow to trust Walter, but Tarek and Walter become close over a mutual love of African drums. As his wife was a famous classical pianist, Walter had been futilely attempting to find musical inspiration since her death. However, just as this charming tale of world harmony plays out, it comes back to harsh reality when Tarek is arrested and taken to a detention center in Queens for deportation. What McCarthy does from this point forward is show how sadly restrictive the post-9/11 environment has made immigration laws and how there is no recourse to be found under the constant surveillance of a bureaucratic government protected by the latitude of the Patriot Act.

None of this is hit over our heads with a politically motivated sledgehammer. Far from such polemics, the story singularly focuses on Walter's emergence of purpose in helping Tarek. When Tarek's mother Mouna arrives from Detroit, McCarthy adeptly shows how Walter's closeness to Tarek translates without condition to her. It's a moving transformation of a formerly lonely man finding intimacy in the most unlikely situation. In a once-in-a-lifetime role, character actor Richard Jenkins brings heart and soul to Walter in the most economical manner. Best known as the ghostly father in HBO's "Six Feet Under", he has worked steadily in films for three decades, his most memorable turn being the gay FBI agent high on heroin in David O. Russell's "Flirting with Disaster". With his constant look of resignation on the verge of revelation, Jenkins gives a wondrously poignant, often dryly funny performance that deepens as the story evolves.

Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira are terrifically winning as Tarek and Zainab, and they make their bonding with Walter more than credible. As Mouna, Hiam Abbass is no stranger to persevering maternal roles as she brought her particular brand of strength to Hany-Abu Assad's controversial "Palestine Now" and Eran Riklis' family dramedy, "The Syrian Bride". In response to Walter's fumbling overtures, she affectingly conveys her character's resolute stillness and gradual blossoming. There are brief cameos by comic actor Richard Kind as Walter's unctuous neighbor, Deborah Rush as a wealthy and ignorant customer of Zainab's, and Broadway legend Marian Seldes as Walter's failed piano teacher. At first, I thought the film's title was blandly generic in describing those who are here from other lands, but I realize now that the visitor is really Walter as he discovers his soul. The last shot is memorable and captures the fury of his passion with potent force. Strongly recommended.

I loved THE STATION AGENT, I mean that is a fantastic, tight little movie. Thoughtful, paced well, bitter-sweet, colorful characters and a real story.

THE VISITOR was a movie I was prepared to love, but its not that great. In fact, I would venture to say its a little preachy. There are moments in which the characters are living the moment, and then they will break out some stale monologue that doesn't quite match the organic dialogue its spoiling.

Even though I am all for loosening immigration laws, and accepting interracial relationships, I just didn't feel like I needed the pan up to the American flag, or the 'How is this different than Syria' or the 'He didn't do anything wrong' Why Why Why Why Why . . . we got it covered, oh-the-injustice. Do we have to continually remind the audiences that our country is flawed and xenophobic? I noticed a similar heavy-handedness in STOP-LOSS with an equally talented director. I have concluded that good filmmakers should not tell stories when they are angry, because it seeps into characters, the landscape and the narrative like red ink.

OK but not great.

Thomas McCarthy's second film, after the charming Station Agent, is a quiet, hard look at several different aspects of humanity. The Visitor centers on Walter Vale, masterfully portrayed by Richard Jenkins. A solemn economics teacher, he spends his time pretending to write on his book and learn piano. Walter finds himself in New York on business and runs into two illegal immigrants, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira who were tricked into renting his apartment. Tarek and Walter strike up an unusual friendship when Tarek begins to teach Walter how to play the drums. This is interrupted by Tarek's arrest and detention while it is decided whether he will be deported or not. Soon Walter is joined by Tarek's mother Mouna.

The Visitor is a wonderful piece that brings together some of the best performances I have seen this year. McCarthy disarms us with wry humor, quiet wit, and a meditative pace and before we know it we've found ourselves immersed. When the credits have rolled, however, it's not so much the plot that stays with us as the characters. The most perplexing and fascinating character is Walter Vale. The transformation undergone by his character is done perfectly, the changes are noticeable but not intrusive. Tarek and Zainab who have only a handful of scenes together, manage to share incredible chemistry. Hiam Abbass, as Tarek's mother, deepens the connection between the characters, almost filling in the cracks to complete a whole.

At first glance, the Visitor seems political in nature. Thomas McCarthy has actually said that was not true, the deportation aspect of the film actually came into the script later in the process. The Visitor, instead of political aspirations, merely seeks to show us that anyone can change your life and that change is all around us and is indeed a good thing.

In the end, Thomas McCarthy succeeds in bringing capturing the humor, tragedy, and change of the human experience in his new film. Brought to life by incredibly stirring performances, particularly Richard Jenkins, the Visitor is the most emotionally powerful film to light up the big screen in a while.

This was an incredible heartwarming and heart-breaking movie. Its power lies in its simplicity. In some ways its is a coming of age movie about a middle-aged professor coming to terms with his life and allowing himself to finally be who he is. Or perhaps a re-birthing movie in which, having died psychologically and spiritually, he emerges from his cocoon.

A series of random events coincide to bring about a life-changing event (isn't that always the case?). The unfolding of the story occurs at a slow and steady (but never boring) pace that is in perfect keeping with the tone of the movie. It operates at many levels at once, presenting a comedy, drama, social statement and lesson, magnificently intertwined. Without much fanfare viewers are carried along quietly and unknowingly by the movie before realizing they are totally caught up in the depth and humanity of the story. The events opens up the main character as well as the audience's awareness of what is happening all around us in everyday life, of which few are aware and most of us prefer not to know about.

What makes the movie what it is is the fact that it is not necessarily designed to make a specific point or manipulate the emotions of the audience or to provide an answer or ending to make folks feel one way or another. However these factors do emerge in the minds of viewers. This is why the movie have such an impact - a simple story, very well told, with no hidden agendas. Movie making at its best.

The Visitor strings together unlikely events in the lives of a professor and his visitors. Remarkably sincere and touching, the unimaginable events feel natural.

Awkward Connecticut economics professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) has essentially checked out from his job, his personality and his life. Walter is forced by circumstance to return to his abandoned New York City apartment. When he returns he meets Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira), who have taken up unauthorized residence in his apartment. Tarek and Zainab teach Walter to live again, to come out of his shell and remind him how unfair life can be.

Writer and director Thomas McCarthy wrote all of the characters in The Visitor with almost contradictory personality attributes which gives them each a complex humanity.

McCarthy wrote Walter Vale painfully dull and bumbling but it was Richard Jenkins who also makes Walter charming and heart breaking. In nearly every setting, Jenkins both makes the audience scrunch their faces at Walter's social inadequacies while simultaneously bringing out our Florence Nightingale instincts. As Walter changes in the course The Visitor, Jenkins keeps the essential qualities of Walter but changes him in surprising ways.

The supporting cast isn't any less remarkable in The Visitor. There is a master of life, a vision of unabashed sadness and an embodiment of sensual motherly warmth. Haaz Sleiman, who plays Tarek, is (damn foxy) full of life as Tarek. His esprit fills Tarek, the audience, the other characters and actors with such vitality. Danai Jekesai Guria plays Zainab, Tarek's girlfriend. So much of Zainab is forlorn despondent dejection. Rich with beautiful hardness and unnaturally attractive pain, Danai Jekesai Guria made Zainab so hard to watch but impossible to pull your eyes away from. Hiam Abbass plays Mouna, Tarek's mother. Her fear is palpable but she never loses her intangible sensuality.

The most remarkable part of The Visitor is the way it organically shows the way life can change un-expectantly, unfairly and without warning and does it with real, raw emotion. Just when you think you've figured out what the movie is about, you slapped with a new reality. It is frightening, timely and angering. Even the ending, which is not the typical movie ending, is emotive in a subtle and realistic way. I was not overwhelmed or underwhelmed by the movie, I was perfectly whelmed; a task indeed.

The pacing is the one complaint I have with The Visitor. The editing could have been much better. There are beautiful scenes sometimes drawn out to boredom. Scenes that were the actors' timing is slightly off are only highlighted by the shoddy editing. The Visitor is an artsy movie but Tom McArdle checked out completely in a few of the scenes.

Slow bits aside, The Visitor is a rewarding film with rich characters, beautiful acting and complexities that might make those people who are quick to tears, cry.

In Connecticut, the widower and lonely Professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) has a boring life teaching for one class only in the college and trying to learn how to play piano despite not having the necessary musical talent. Walter is assigned to attend a conference about Global Policy and Development in the New York University and give a lecture about a paper that he is coauthor. When he arrives in his apartment in New York, he finds the Syrian musician Tarek Khalil (Haaz Sleiman) and the Senegalese street vendor Zainab (Danai Gurira) living there. He sympathizes with the situation of the illegal immigrants and invites the couple to stay with him. Tarek invites him to go to his gig in the Jules Live Jazz and Walter is fascinated with his African drum; then Tarek offers to teach Walter to play the drum. However, after an incident in the subway, Tarek is arrested by the police and sent to a detention center of immigrants. Walter hires a lawyer to defend Tarek and out of the blue, Tarek's mother Mouna Khalil (Hiam Abbass) appears in Walter's apartment coming from Michigan; he invites her to stay in Tarek's room and while trying to release Tarek, Walter and Mouna get close to each other and he finds a reason to live an exciting life again.

"The Visitor" is a touching and realistic tale of friendship and self- discovery in a world of intolerance. It is ironic to see the poster "Immigrants – The Strength of America" and sad to see the arrogance of the officers responsible for the security. The story is supported by an excellent screenplay; a simple and effective direction of Thomas McCarthy, who is also the writer; and magnificent performances of the cast. The always awesome Richard Jenkins, who plays a middle-aged intellectual that lives a senseless life after the death of his wife that finds a reason to live with music, the elegant Hiam Abbass that helps Walter to find the meaning of life together with her son, performed by the unknown Haaz Sleiman have an amazing work. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Visitante" ("The Visitor")

Mr. McCarthy's film seems to be working at several levels, a main one being the character development of Walter Vale, and another the effects of blind bureaucracy upon the human spirit.

It was interesting to see Vale's callous attitude toward one of his students early on when the lad was late turning in a class paper. The student's reason: some serious personal issues. Did the professor show any extra understanding or compassion for the young man? No; the paper was late and therefore simply unacceptable.

Yet when Vale wanted information and understanding later on at the immigration department when making inquiry about the deportation of Tarek Kahlel, what did he do but blatantly rant about how insensitive and unimpassioned was the system. This, after he'd previously witnessed a similar situation at the front desk with another frustrated inquirer.

What's the country to do, having immigration regulations in place: excuse and make special exceptions for certain illegal aliens? As Vale showed no interest in learning about his student's situation, he yet expected the immigration department to bend to his personal demands.

Vale was certainly a pathetic prof, drifting through life without energy or passion. His encounter with Tarek and his wife and mother all seemed rather arbitrary, allowing these relationships to become his interest, for lack of a better direction. Personally, I felt sorry for this glum character, yet mindful that the death of a spouse can cause some derailment in direction.

The cast was uniformly fine, with special kudos to Richard Jenkins and Haaz Sleiman.

What would you do if you suddenly arrived at your apartment, that apartment that you only use from time to time, but that's yours anyway, and found a couple living in it? This is precisely what happens in this film to Walter, a peaceful university professor, who has lived a boring and routine life for decades, and sees his life change when he arrives at his New York apartment for a conference and meets two illegal immigrants living there, convinced that they had rented it. Who visits whom? It depends, I think, on the perspective.

The film is directed and written by Tom McCarthy, who could have done better if he was more direct in what he wants to say to his audience. The script is effective in telling a good story, but it should be more frontal in the way it tries to question the way we react to immigrants and the problem of immigration in post-9/11 America. The film does indeed want to question the justice of the authorities' treatment of these immigrants, but it does not want to openly criticize that subject, which is particularly relevant for us in Southern Europe, as we have immense newcomers swimming across the Mediterranean. On the other hand, he also does an interesting exercise in putting the peaceful life of a mature man inside out. Sometimes what we need is a shake-up to start enjoying life in another way, and to find new forms of happiness.

The cast is powerfully led by Richard Jenkins. The actor is good, and his work here is strong enough to withstand most of the film. Personally, I had no problems with the way the character changes and I don't see it strange that he is interested in the drum. Here, in Portugal, this kind of instrument became popular thanks to the Portuguese contact with Africa (as you certainly know, my country was present there for a long time) and I remember seeing schoolmates, white like me, with similar drums. The actor is good, but establishes an uninteresting relationship with Hiam Abbass. The actress does her job well, but she has little to do, and their chemistry was not convincing. I never realized if they come together out of guilt and fear or if there really is any affection. More convincing was the relationship between Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira, and Sleiman's joy and optimism is a welcome bonus, although it is hard to believe from the moment he is arrested. Shouldn't prison have a more devastating effect on the morale and optimism of someone like him?

Technically, it is a discreet film, betting more on the history and performance of the actors than on any scenic subterfuge. Cinematography is standard, the sets and costumes are what we would expect to find. The soundtrack has nothing really appealing about it, and New York City, which is particularly photogenic, was really underused.

This movie is designed to make a specific point. It manipulates the emotions of the audience to make folks feel our immigration laws should not be enforced. When the character Tarek, who has entered the US illegally, complains of his imminent deportation, his cry that it would not be fair is never answered by the obvious, that he DID break the law and that deportation is the usual punishment. Instead, the audience is offered only the emotion of sympathy for Tarek.

All the events leading up to this scene generate sympathy for the illegal aliens. The script is well constructed. It is not a comedy. It is a political essay.

Excellent acting, very good photography, good use of NYC color.

(67%) King of under-acting Richard Jenkins is key to this sweet, yet important drama about a lonely middle aged man who does all he can to help two illegal immigrants. It would be easy to make something like this nothing more than a TV movie, but thankfully this takes on an important issue in a manner in which by all accounts makes logical sense and isn't just simply going for the easier to hit targets. Jenkins' character from the start isn't a blind do-gooder, or a somewhat mean guy who turns good for the sake of a cheap narrative. Instead he's fairly consistent and you understand, and more importantly you actually believe that this person would actually commit the beyond kind things that he does because you know exactly how he feels at that current stage in his life. This might have suited a short more than a full length picture, but it's still a good, worthwhile watch that managers to draw out sensitive issues without being preachy or sanctimonious.

Thomas McCarthy's two films, The Station Agent and The Visitor, are both concerned with a person not in his element of social space, of being disconnected from other people and not really based on him wanting it on himself, but somehow finds people to connect with without any force and gets wrapped up in their lives because he is, basically, a good person. Peter Dinklage played the former title character, and now we have Richard Jenkins (a veteran character we all know and admire but never really peg who he is most of the time he shows up) as a middle aged college professor who's wife has passed on and doesn't have any passion for teaching or writing his next book.

He takes begrudgingly a task to give a speech on a paper he only co-wrote in name in New York City, and finds in his old apartment a couple (Syrian and African played by Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira) who have been living there for a couple of months. Somehow a bond grows between them, mostly between the two men over playing on the drum. Then something happens, tragically, which changes everything, but it's not what you might think at first.

It would appear that the Visitor is a film about the underrated horror of the problems of being an illegal in America, and the processes of the government basically not giving a damn about most of the people, and most of whom haven't done a thing. While McCarthy nears the film towards preachy ground in these bits, they're few and far between. His great strength is in making value out of good people forced into circumstances that make them show how good they really are. Jenkins could just leave the guy behind in that jail, but there's something about his plight that affects him, not simply for the obvious but because of a connection on a pure level (through, most crucially, music) that goes beyond class or race or whatever.

It's a very precise moral story, but it needs the performances to carry it. Luckily, McCarthy is an actor's director, and Jenkins is able to be subtle about it and able to convey frustration when required very naturally. He depicts a loneliness to the character that is cracked through his ties to these new characters, including Tarek's mother, and all of the actors around him are up to 'snuff' too (especially Haaz Sleiman as the good-natured man who got screwed over by a faulty immigration process). They help make such a small-scale story worth telling, and it's a true sleeper that demands some more attention, at some point or another, which might be on video or on the inevitable screenings on the IFC channel.

'The Visitor' is about a jaded academic widower who re-engages with life after encountering an illegal immigrant in his New York flat. Richard Jenkins is good in the lead role, but the film has an oddly anaemic air. Immigrants the world over are distinguished through their misfitting cultures, their poverty (resulting from a lack of connections and assets in their new world) and, as a reaction to the above; their rumbustiousness. Of course, not every immigrant fits this stereotype - yet in a sense, it's what makes immigrant communities interesting. 'The Visitor' is keen to debunk the cliché: its protagonists are mild, utterly American, not apparently poor, somewhat separate from their own communities and would be at home at any middle-class dinner table. While such a portrayal makes its own (not necessarily invalid) points, it feels like the professor makes a very short journey when he enters their world. He plays the piano, they play the African drums - and that's about it. In fact, the film's benign portrayal extends to the wider city, which has rarely seemed a less threatening place on film. But there's not a lot of drama to be found in it.

I came to The Visitor ready to love it because I had greatly enjoyed the Station Agent and had heard good things about this. Certainly few people have a bad word for the film (well, few people worth reading anyway) and it is with a certain amount of heavy heart that I find myself not able to agree with them. On the face of it this film is about two things. The overwhelming thrust of the film is about the awakening of the main character from his years-long slumber. His work has become an easy routine and he has been able to hide behind a fictional "book project" as a way of doing even less. Attempts at finding something creative to bring a bit of meaning to his life have yet to come together and it takes a chance meeting with two illegal immigrants to bring that out of him. And thus the other theme of the film is the immigration policy and how it treats people.

OK so in the cold light of day we have a fairly standard character device (the self-discovery/reawakening) and on the other we have a topical subject that deserves some discussion. What a killer then that neither of these two things really work either independently or together. The problem appears to be just how subtle the film is and how very delicately it deals with everything. Some have attacked it for being a liberal guilt film and, while I would normally hate such a criticism, I can see where they are coming from with this because it is so painfully slanted towards the vibrancy and significance of alternative cultures that it is a bit like sitting with a middle-aged white woman with African masks on the wall of her expensive home. Fortunately for the film this side of it is greatly helped by a very fine performance from Jenkins, who is subtle and believable in how he changes, even if on paper it doesn't work that well.

Jenkins cannot do it all though and he cannot prevent the second half of the film from convincing less and less as the relationship with Tariq's mother develops. Nor can he help the immigration side of the film. This side is a real weak piece of commentary. McCarthy is so careful to avoid politics and making statements that he totally fails to have any point in what his film is doing. I wasn't looking for the film to have a manifesto to it but without coming at the subject hard, or making a point more specific than "place of birth does rather dictate quality of live and that's not really fair is it?" he makes the film a lot duller than it should be. It is a real shame because at times his characters work well together but he loses them in this bigger picture while also failing to do anything with the bigger picture. Sleiman is charming and charismatic alongside Jenkins and the two work well together. I also liked Gurira with her mistrusting character and difficult edge. Abbass is a bit too simplistic of a character and her performance matches this.

The Visitor is not a bad film by any means, it does have a certain charm to it, particularly in the first half. However the second half see immigration a bigger theme but has little of interest to say of the subject, while Walter's "journey" becomes less convincing and less engaging as a result. I'm glad many consider it a thing of beauty to be held for the ages, for me it was a very limp affair that squandered its opportunities.

Widowed Connecticut College professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is lonely and not into his work. His son is in London. He has to present a paper he co-authored but had little to do with in a NYC conference. He goes to stay at his New York apartment when he's surprised by Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira). They are illegal immigrants who thought they had sublet the apartment. Walter decides to let them stay. He's from Syria and she's from Senegal. Walter and Tarek become friends over his drumming. Zainab makes handmade jewelry. Tarek gets arrested by plainclothes cops in the subway and ends up in a detention center. Walter gets him a lawyer and Tarek's mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) leaves Michigan to be close to her son.

Jenkins is quiet but has great humanity. It presents the invisible world of the illegals in the aftermath of 9/11. These are all characters of believable human beings. That's what makes Walter and Tarek's friendship great. It's hesitant at first but accepting and real. The plot is not overly dramatic and doesn't have big twists. The story flows rather than jumps. What it does have is a great sense of human relationships.