'The Visitor'
MOVIE REVIEW
THE Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers figure prominently in Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor," an unassuming but quietly heartbreaking drama about the unexpected bonds that can form in a city like New York, and their depth and fragility in times of hysteria. These monuments have become bookends to an era, yet McCarthy, an actor-turned-director who previously directed "The Station Agent," treats the symbols lightly, concentrating instead on the interplay between his unlikely quartet of characters.
"The Visitor" stars the wonderful Richard Jenkins as Walter Vale, a widowed economics professor in Connecticut. Vale lives alone in a suburban house as white and desolate as a snowdrift, trying to learn the piano as a way to remain connected to his deceased concert pianist wife. He's been sleepwalking through his job for years, teaching the minimum number of courses and stalling on his next book, when he's unexpectedly asked to stand in for a colleague and present a paper he co-authored at a conference in New York.
On arriving at his apartment in the city, Walter notices signs of life -- the most impossible to ignore being a terrified Senegalese woman in his bathtub. Zainab (Danai Gurira) is living at Walter's place with her Syrian boyfriend, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), who was scammed into the living arrangement by a con artist. Young, poor and illegal, the young couple worry that Walter will call the police. Instead, he unexpectedly offers them a place to stay the night.
It's tempting to describe McCarthy's movie as a story about the effect of draconian post-Sept. 11 immigration laws on individuals, but this would make it sound like the kind of issue-driven movie that plays like a scolding and feels like a chore. "The Visitor" is far from that. It's a film about relationships, their randomness and unpredictability, and what happens when bureaucracy attempts to make life conform to its rigid, parochial and often ignorant standards.
Tarek is a musician and an open, trusting soul (and a radiant Sleiman portrays him with uncommon warmth, openness and humanity). Grateful, Tarek takes an immediate liking to Walter (unlike the wary Zainab, who unconsciously recoils in his presence), easily engaging him in a way no one has been able to do throughout the film. Tarek's wide-openness is a striking contrast to Walter's introverted alienation, and watching this awkward, lonely man come to life again is strange and touching.
