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'The Visitor': Heartfelt Story

By Marcos Bernal-Salas

Friday, April 11, 2008

Tom McCarthy’s follow up to his award winning film ‘The Station Agent’, is a riveting and surprising film; about rediscovering joy in the most unexpected ways. ‘The Visitor’ stars Richard Jenkins; better know for his role as the distant father in the TV series ‘Six Feet Under’. Walter Vale (Jenkins) starts off as a disheartened man, wrapped up in a monotonous life where he serves as an economic professor and somehow changes; not to someone completely different but perhaps more awake.

McCarthy’s story might come across as simple but it is poignant on the idea that sometimes people might be sleepwalking through their daily lives without noticing others or things that might be joyful. This is at the heart of ‘The Visitor’ which unravels through the personal connections and characters that Vale comes across in the film. At first is the young couple that has taken residence in his old Manhattan apartment, Tarek and Zainab, a Syrian man and Senegalese woman respectively. They slowly become part of Vale’s life due to their difficult living circumstances. Tarek befriends the sixty-two-year old man teaching him how to play the African drum. The friendship between the two men deepens as the story develops and becomes a sort of modern father-son tale. Especially after Tarek gets arrested and his mother enters Vale’s life as well.

‘The Visitor’ is a charming story that slowly unravels to expose the unexpected situations surrounding Vale. The acting and dialogue are simply superb creating outstanding characters in the film. Jenkins shines through Vale making him a very likeable character. Hiam Abbass, who plays Mouna, Tarek’s beautiful mother is a revelation playing the troubled mother and the romantic interest in Vale’s eyes with great finesse.

McCarthy delves into the issues surrounding immigration; which as of late has become a very hot topic in the states. Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite deliver the strong point – or any point – that he is trying to make. It’s more of a passive point of view that although further develops his characters could have been left out of the film without hurting the central storyline. To me, ‘The Visitor’ is more about the morale behind the story than a political statement. The idea that small decisions sometimes can make a huge difference in anyone’s life but only if everyone’s is paying close attention to their surroundings.