THE VISITOR

THE VISITOR
Movie (2008), 104 min
Director & Writer: Thomas McCarthy



STORY CAUTION Don't read the following entry if you don't want to know pretty much what happens in this story. Please return after you've read the book or seen the movie and leave a comment to tell us what you thought.

Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a bored, widowed, middle-aged college professor who goes to a conference in New York to deliver a paper. There, in his city apartment, he finds a young African couple who've somehow been scammed into renting the place (how this happened is never fully explained). Actually, it's visitors plural here, as Syrian Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), who plays the drums, is in the company of his Senegalese girlfriend Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira). Zainab fades into the background, though, as Tarek and Walter bond over drumming lessons.

Walter seems to come to some sort of life as he continues his lessons and gleefully sits in with a group of drummers, but darkness awaits. Tarek gets hauled in by the immigration police (both he and Zanaib are illegal). His mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) visits him but can do nothing about his threatened deportation. Naturally, Walter invites her to stay at his place, and a subdued but warm semi-romance tries to blossom between them.

In the end, Tarek is sent home, and Mouna follows to help him. Walter is left with some new interests in life and is predictably angry about Tarek's fate. At this point the story left me behind, as my sympathy for illegal immigrants doesn't run very deep.

Still, this is a sweet story about a man who awakens to music and reawakens to the possibility of romance. The writing is straightforward and doesn't pull too hard on the melodrama strings. The lonely guy remains lonely but somehow seems the better for his seemingly pointless encounters with the visitors.

Writer and director Thomas McCarthy also created "The Station Agent" (2003). To me, "The Visitor" was another picture about a loner--like the station agent--who bumps into others, touches them briefly and is touched by them, and then moves on. It's all nearly too realistic for drama.