THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"The Visitor"

From The Ashes Of Post-9/11 Injustice, An Unexpected Love Story

By Omar P.L. Moore/May 16, 2008

One of the best and most surprising films of the year, Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor", which opened last month and is expanding over the last few weeks including today in selected U.S. cities, is an intimate and bitter-sweet drama about a widowed Connecticut teacher whose life has been at a virtual standstill since the death of his faithful wife.  The film has not a false note in it, even when it threatens to become an exercise in paternalism.

What's a teacher in his late-50's to do?  His kids are all grown and living here, there and in London.  His wife has departed the earth, and his teaching job has become rote.  Called to New York City to fill in as an assistant professor at a conference at New York University, Walter Vale (played by Richard Jenkins) walks almost purposeless through the daily rigors of life.  Arriving at his lower Manhattan apartment he finds to his shock squatters in the shape of Tarek (Haas Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira), a couple who are from Syria and Somalia respectively.  From there a warmer, or at least cordial relationship between the couple and Walter develops.  One of Tarek's gifts is the drum, which he can be seen playing in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village -- a drum that will be the very instrument to kick start the heartbeat within Walter's dormant soul.

Another event will further alter the relationship between the three, but out of this circumstance of overzealous action comes an opportunity to offer a helping hand to those all-too-easily jobbed by the system.  The specter of 9/11/01 looms large, but Americans as shown in "The Visitor" have a chance to modify or right a wrong, help their fellow man, and take their restorative and rightful place back on the world stage.  Out of the ashes will come romance.  There are good performances all around in Mr. McCarthy's sophomore effort, most especially Mr. Jenkins, very good in a rare lead role, Mr. Sleiman and Hiam Abbas as Tarek's mother.  His new film goes a step better than his first -- he finds the dimensions of intimacy and makes them as authentic as possible within the tight confines of a modest but clearly-defined story.  While one man's hardship is another man's opportunity to perhaps live again, "The Visitor" succeeds at being nothing less than a purely-rendered, well-meaning film that doesn't insult its adult audience.  The film is both entertaining and thought-provoking, which usually means that Mr. McCarthy, who also wrote the film as he did his debut "The Station Agent", didn't go wrong.

Mr. McCarthy chronicles real characters with stumbling blocks or challenges brought against them or their immutable characteristics.  In "The Station Agent" it was the prejudices and anger leveled at dwarves, here in "The Visitor" it is the prejudice and racism lobbed at immigrants from countries that aren't desirable in the eyes of some Americans or the U.S. government.  "The Visitor" doesn't supply a Hallmark Greeting Card ending, but it isn't a complete downer either, which is probably an accurate reflection of how everyday life is for most.  The title of the film could refer to any of the characters, an open-ended reference -- or not -- depending on your perspective.

"The Visitor" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for brief strong language.  The film's duration is one hour and 49 minutes.


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