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The Visitor, 2007
Walter (Richard Jenkins) is a college professor who spends most of his time in Connecticut. Walter has been phoning his work in, ever since the death of his wife. When he has to go down to New York, his technical residence, to present a paper, he is stunned to find Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira) living in his apartment. After sorting out the initial misunderstanding, Walter agrees to let the couple stay until they can find alternate arrangements. Despite himself, Walter finds himself bonding with and getting involved in their immigration woes.
This is a very moving rumination on the importance of human connection and the unfairness that tests and even breaks those connections.
I appreciated the way that the film laid out Walter's half-hearted existence. He takes piano lessons in an effort to feel connected to his late wife. Despite his efforts (and several different teachers!), he is unable to make much headway. He teaches the same college course over and over, merely using white out to change the year at the top of the syllabus.
The film gives a brief (and, honestly, expected) honeymoon period where Walter, Tarek, and Zainab begin to develop their tentative friendship. But very soon thereafter, Tarek finds himself in trouble with the immigration authorities, and Walter is plunged into the world of green cards and infuriating bureaucracy.
I give the film a lot of credit for extolling the value of kindness and friendship, while recognizing the real-world bounds of those things. When Tarek is detained, Zainab does not feel comfortable staying in the apartment with only Walter. Tarek is from Syria, and Zainab is from Senegal. If one or the other of them is deported, it's likely they will never see one another again. Part of Walter's awakening is being thrust into the daily uncertainty that many immigrants and asylum-seekers live with. One of his realizations is that what he sees as common decency holds exactly zero value to the people he interacts with in the different offices and detention centers. Besides, they are merely the face of policies and laws decided by people who don't sit at the front desk buzzing people through.
Later in the film, Walter meets Mouna (Hiam Abbass), Tarek's mother. As they form a friendship, his loss of his wife and the new friendships with the young immigrants seem to cohere.
A running theme through the film is that Tarek begins to teach Walter drumming. Tarek must help Walter to learn the 3/4 time that goes with the music he plays, as opposed to the 4/4 time he is used to. It's like Tarek is giving him a new heartbeat, and the sense of rhythm threads its way through the movie, right up to the last frame.
I was particularly taken, I must admit, by the very last sequence in which, (MAJOR SPOILERS)
.
A film with a lot of heart.
The Visitor, 2007
Walter (Richard Jenkins) is a college professor who spends most of his time in Connecticut. Walter has been phoning his work in, ever since the death of his wife. When he has to go down to New York, his technical residence, to present a paper, he is stunned to find Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira) living in his apartment. After sorting out the initial misunderstanding, Walter agrees to let the couple stay until they can find alternate arrangements. Despite himself, Walter finds himself bonding with and getting involved in their immigration woes.
This is a very moving rumination on the importance of human connection and the unfairness that tests and even breaks those connections.
I appreciated the way that the film laid out Walter's half-hearted existence. He takes piano lessons in an effort to feel connected to his late wife. Despite his efforts (and several different teachers!), he is unable to make much headway. He teaches the same college course over and over, merely using white out to change the year at the top of the syllabus.
The film gives a brief (and, honestly, expected) honeymoon period where Walter, Tarek, and Zainab begin to develop their tentative friendship. But very soon thereafter, Tarek finds himself in trouble with the immigration authorities, and Walter is plunged into the world of green cards and infuriating bureaucracy.
I give the film a lot of credit for extolling the value of kindness and friendship, while recognizing the real-world bounds of those things. When Tarek is detained, Zainab does not feel comfortable staying in the apartment with only Walter. Tarek is from Syria, and Zainab is from Senegal. If one or the other of them is deported, it's likely they will never see one another again. Part of Walter's awakening is being thrust into the daily uncertainty that many immigrants and asylum-seekers live with. One of his realizations is that what he sees as common decency holds exactly zero value to the people he interacts with in the different offices and detention centers. Besides, they are merely the face of policies and laws decided by people who don't sit at the front desk buzzing people through.
Later in the film, Walter meets Mouna (Hiam Abbass), Tarek's mother. As they form a friendship, his loss of his wife and the new friendships with the young immigrants seem to cohere.
A running theme through the film is that Tarek begins to teach Walter drumming. Tarek must help Walter to learn the 3/4 time that goes with the music he plays, as opposed to the 4/4 time he is used to. It's like Tarek is giving him a new heartbeat, and the sense of rhythm threads its way through the movie, right up to the last frame.
I was particularly taken, I must admit, by the very last sequence in which, (MAJOR SPOILERS)
WARNING: spoilers below
having effectively lost Tarek, Mouna, and Zainab, Walter sits in the subway and bangs out an impassioned, loud beat on the drum that Tarek left in his care. As he uses the drum to howl his anger and frustration and loss, the arrival of a subway train drowns out his music.
A film with a lot of heart.