The Visitor

The Visitor is a abashed statement movie, like Hans-Christian Schmid's Requiem or Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, that really needs an open mind to operate (the latter didn't really work for me, because science reasons that pregnancy involves a infant and not a fetus-shaped problem.) Although in many ways the themes are universal, the film has a very liberal center, and the viewer needs to come in who can think, not reaffirm.

The film opens with middle-aged Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins,) who stares almost desperately out the window for his piano teacher to come. As soon as they dully carry out their lessons, he informs her he is going to give up the class. It was really more his wife's, who has died, thing anyway. This reflects the whole movie, he wants interaction with people, than quickly rejects them.

Walter divides his time between Connecticut, where he halfheartedly teaches college courses with young adults who have probably long since given up hope of surprise or freshness, and New York, where he pretends to be writing a book that has been put indefinitely on hold. His subject of teaching is global economics- an odd choice, considering it's been a long time since he was involved with (not to say 'cared about') anyone, including himself. He's kind of like an agoraphobic who drones on about the joys of the outdoors.

His only passion, in fact, is music, which is quickly fading. His teacher tactlessly asked if she may buy the piano if he gives it up, and makes it clear he doesn't have the raw natural talent of his late wife. Throughout the film, the only time he is relieved of his perpetual slump is when he hears music in the streets, or in recording, or in his head. Even his manner of walking becomes more perked and interested. When he doesn't hear the beat, it gets so bad that I wished for the sake of him and his tortured students that someone could get the guy and Mp3 player.

His wake-up call begins when Walter visits his apartment in New York, and walks into his own bathroom to find Zainab (Danar Gurira) in the tub. She has a boyfriend, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman,) who clearly doesn't take to strange men wandering in when Zainab is bathing. Walter senses trouble about ten seconds before Tarek slams him against the door and nearly beats him to a pulp. After a tense confrontation, they calm down, and Walter gets the chance to shakily say he is not a sex criminal.

Apparently, Tarek and Zainab, two immigrants (the first from Serbia and the latter African) immigrated quite some time ago, and a shady Realtor give them an used apartment. He never managed to mention that there was still an occupant who came every now and then, and expected 'his' home to be untouched. Even though Walter suspects something is up with their entry to America (the first thing Tarek worries about after he assures his wife has not been violated is the police,) he allows them to stay, a favor Zainab takes begrudgingly.

I was never sure if Zainab was worried by the vague threat of sexual violence (something painfully embarrassing he says doesn't help, although it isn't actual interest but just social incompetence,) or if she is humiliated by accepting charity from a slightly pretentious college professor in a suit and tie, but she gives him such hateful looks that I would be quickly throwing up my hands in defeat and searching for a new New York dwelling. Tarek, however, takes a liking to him (it's so much more convenient for the plot if they get along, but Haaz Sleiman genuinely personable performance makes it believable.)

Tarek befriends Walter and makes it his mission to rekindle his participation in the music world. But one day Tarek is violently hauled off by Law Enforcement by passing over the turnstile (it is possible considering the suddenness and harshness of it that it was racially motivated, but this, like a lot of things in this movie, goes unsaid.) they discover he doesn't have a green card, something a smart man like Walter must have suspected, and he is placed without rhyme or reason in a holding facility for illegal immigrants. For obvious reasons, Zainab cannot go there, so Walter serves as a kind of spokesperson between them, and sets out to allow them passage in the United States.

Now the problem with Walter (and quite possibly the main reason he seeked solitude from the human race) is this-he has the unique, unfailing (dis?) ability to skew everything that comes out of his mouth to alienate, aggravate, and discomfort everyone around him. When he wants to be kind, he comes off as pretentious. When he wants to crack a joke, he's comes off as nervy.

Between the lead character and the reflective awkwardness and misunderstanding of the people around him, The Visitor presents decent characters who are to some degree separated by their own hang-ups. The four main characters (I'll get to the fourth in a little bit) are racially very different from each other, but the movie suggests that it is human foible rather than that leaves them, in communication, picking up the pieces and starting again.

The final lead is Mouna (Hiam Abbass, who from her profile on video sites has done a lot for the Middle Eastern movie-making industry,) Tarek's mother, who comes to his home, finds out the situation, and refuses to leave. Walter develops quite the crush on her, which seems reciprocated, and they make tentative steps toward a relationship, which is perhaps appropriately not fully developed but kind and not purely physical. And Walter gets Tarek a lawyer who would hopefully grant him Asylum, and makes his own personal changes. If he can't help the others, he reasons, he can help himself.

So far the director, Tom McCarthy's, films have dealt with prejudice in some form or another. The other one I have seen, The Station Agent, had the talented Peter Dinklage as a independent man suffering from dwarfism (or more fully, people's reactions to it.) He faced the daily degradation of being shamelessly photographed when picking up a gallon of milk. The minorities in The Visitor suffer being observed and judged by strangers who don't know the first thing about them, and that's just the beginning of it.

It is only when Walter gives his impassioned speech about rights that the film lapses into corn, because the movie is yelling at us as well as the characters, and what should have been dealt with a careful hand by the director is instead dealt by jack hammer. But McCarthy's vision is wider than many modern film director ("things go boom" is the total story of many modern films, including your pick of plot rentals,) a farther humanity, and a very good cast (Rated PG-13.)