The Visitor (2007, PG-13)

I first saw this film, Tom McCarthy’s second after The Station Agent, years ago, and while The Station Agent still holds the top place in my regard, I’ve always liked The Visitor. Seeing it again recently, I was struck by how much more heavy my viewing was under present circumstances (a few spoilers.)

Walter, a widowed economics professor, has been languishing in a rut for years, deeply unhappy but so numb that he barely recognizes it. When a conference takes him into New York City, he returns to his seldom-used apartment to find a young immigrant couple squatting there. To his surprise as much as theirs, Walter begins a shy friendship with the pair and starts to live for the first time in years.

The basic format of this film is very much in line with Tom McCarthy’s favorite kind of story (see also, The Station Agent and Up): softspoken loner is semi-unwillingly adopted by one or more vivacious balls of sunshine, and an unexpected little family is cobbled together. Walter just exudes the air of a man sleepwalking through life, and when he’s shaken up by meeting Tarek and Zainab, he initially resists but almost immediately begins giving in despite himself. That said, the turns the plot takes are its own, and even though Walter’s dynamic with Tarek and Zainab (and later Mouna) reminds me of Finn, Joe, and Olivia or Carl, Russell, Dug, and Kevin, the actual relationships have their own bent.

Seeing it again, I recognize that Tarek in particular might be something of a Magical Brown Person (or maybe a Manic Pixie Dream Muslim?) His position early in the plot is to pull Walter out of his listlessness, make him feel again, and introduce him to the beauty of the djembe (Walter has burned his way through multiple piano teachers, but he takes well to Tarek’s good-natured instruction on the African drum.) However, 1) Tarek is rounded out by the other immigrant characters, and 2) that isn’t his only purpose in the story. As Walter takes greater part in Tarek and Zainab’s world, he’s introduced to music, dishes, and culture that are new to him, but he’s also brought face-to-face with the realities of being a brown or Black immigrant in America, especially a Muslim after 9/11.

That’s where the “under present circumstances” part comes in. Interactions with ICE are harrowing enough to see in this film, made in 2007 – the way any offense can make a person suspect in the eyes of the law, the baffling and callous bureaucratic process, the dehumanization of detention. Thinking about what’s happening now in 2010 to men, women, and children daily is heartwrenching.

All the actors do a fine job with the material. As with The Station Agent, the performances are understated but feel immediately specific and true-to-life. As Walter, Richard Jenkins is a quiet lead, affecting in his stillness. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Haaz Sleiman as the bursting-with-life Tarek (this was the first film I saw Sleiman in, and I’ve yet to see him in another role that makes good use of his talents.) It was also the first film I saw Danai Gurira in (Okoye!), who does well as Zainab, and Hiam Abbass is great as Tarek’s mother Mouna.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements, language, and some drinking.