| Overall Grade: |
A |
|
| Story: |
A- |
|
|
| Acting: |
A |
|
|
| Direction: |
A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A- |
|
|
The visitor finds a perfect gem
by brian (movies profile)
Jul 16, 2008
21
of
26 people found this review helpful
This is a movie that would be easy to pigeon-hole 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 and find that they can express the best part of their humanity. Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a middle-aged economics professor grappling with the death of his concert pianist wife. He blows off his students, zones out during departmental meetings, and listens to his wife's CD as he cooks dinner that he eats alone. Its as if he is bathed in grief, he lets it wash over him and destroy him again and again, with an almost masochistic glee. The first scene of the movie has Walter taking piano lessons, and afterwards he tells his tutor, Barbara (Marian Seldes) that he has decided he is not going to continue the lessons, Barbara tells him that he does lack the natural gift needed to play an instrument, but if he is sure, she would like to buy the piano. When his Connecticut university sends him to New York to deliver a paper that he co-authored, he arrives at the apartment he and his wife kept there for years and finds an immigrant couple living there, Tarek Khalil (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira) the couple have been conned into renting the place, they agree to clear out, but here against type Walter takes pity on them and invites them to stay until they can find other lodgings. As Walter grows more friendly toward Tarek, a warmhearted Syrian, Walter discovers he has a talent for the rhythm and begins to experiment with Tarek's African drums. Before long Tarek has Walter out in Central Park with a group of men playing the drums, Walter is incongruous at the gathering in his starchy suit and tie. Jenkins easily shows Walters decency and when events turn painful, his strength. Tarek is stopped by plain cloth police officers in the subway and is detained as an illegal immigrant and is remanded to a detention center in Queens. Walter makes it his personal mission to free Tarek, he hires an immigration attorney, and he takes a leave of absence to stay in New York. The irony here is overwhelming as Walter is learning to open himself up again he finds a country that is closing down around him. Tarek's mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) shows up at Walter's apartment one morning to learn about Tarek, both Mouna and Zainab know that if they go to the detention center, they will also be locked up, so the only visitor that Tarek gets is Walter. They nurse their friendship from opposite sides of a Plexiglas window. The center is an anonymous building adorned only with the letters UCC. When Tarek explains that their is no outdoor area, and the lights are left on 24 hours a day, we see that this preys heavy on him, Walter brings notes from Zainab and Mouna for Tarek to read and in a quiet but strong scene Walter modestly turns his head, giving Tarek the privacy, he doesn't get elsewhere in the center. During one visit Tarek has Walter bang on the counter between the glass, as the scene unfolds, Tarek joins in. As Mouna and Walter interact on screen, we see them form an emotional bond, one that could have easily turned sexual.This movie makes it easy for the viewer to form an emotional attachment to the characters. I give The Visitor a 4 and on my avoidance scale I give it a 0. This is one of the best movies of 2008, and one that I am glad did not end with the standard happy Hollywood ending. |
My Public Profile 
