The Visitor (2008)

Writer/director Ted McCarthy’s second film, like his first 2003's The Station Agent, is about a socially isolated individual who finds some unlikely friends. However The Visitor is far from a re-tread. It is overtly a political film, a condemnation of an unthinking, bureaucratic and reflexive American immigration system post 9/11, and while very much empathetic, it is not sentimental in the same way the Station Agent was. The film stars Richard Jenkins, one of our great character actors who is always welcome on my screen, in a rare feature part. He is Walter Vale, a university professor and widower who leads a lonely and unfulfilling existence. Dragooned by his department head into leaving Connecticut for a few a weeks to present a paper he was only tangentially involved with at a New York City academic conference, Walter returns to the apartment he once shared with his late concert pianist wife, but to which he has seldom returned since her passing. He is needless to say surprised to find a couple of illegal immigrants, Syrian Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Sengali Zainab (Danai Gurira) living there, a never seen hustler named Ivan having ‘leased’ them the place. Though at first Walter throws them out, he has seconds thoughts and invites them back to stay, at least until they can find a new apartment. Though Zainab is at first leary of this white man whose motivations she can not understand, the easy going Tarek instantly takes to him and they quickly form a close bond. In this young couple Walter finds his first link to truly living since his wife died, for which Tarek’s teaching him to play the African drum, serves as counterpoint to the classical piano that represents his old life, which he must learn to move beyond.

Complication arises when Tarek is arrested for what at most was a minor infraction, and is sent to a detention center pending deportment, it is here that the films more overt political aspects come to assert themselves. The political message is unmissable, but it works only because of the compelling story and delicate handling of the characters, which are McCarthy’s great strengths as a film maker. This is a more mature, more nuanced film then what he had done before (and what he had done before was quite good), and there is no more perfect example of this then the graceful dance of a budding, but never fully consummated relationship between Walter and Tarek’s visiting mother, played by the elegant Hiam Abbass. This is not the kind of film that well, tends to get made, and its uniqueness, worldly relevance, and the obvious infusion of talents involved in its creation make this a must see, and one of the ten best films to come out this year. The Visitor is a humble masterpiece. 5 out of 5