The Visitor

Written and directed by BAFTA winner Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent), The Visitor tells the story of Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins), a college professor in his early 50’s who is going through something of a mid-life crisis. He’s been doing the same job for about 20 years, lecturing in Connecticut to university students and coaching them year on year on economic policy in relation to the third world. It’s a job he does well, but he’s widowed, his only son is in London, he’s lonely and his life therefore holds little excitement.

He rediscovers his passion for life however when his University head urges him to deliver a paper in New York. Walter has co-authored it but its hassle, he’s not written a scrap of it and he tries very hard to get out of going.

Reaching the Big Apple however, he unlocks the apartment he owns there which should be empty, only to find to his complete surprise, that a young couple, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira), have been scammed into illegally renting his flat.

Walter initially turfs them out but recognizing his loneliness and seeing that they have nowhere else to go, he relents and agrees to let them stay for a few days.

Tarek and Zainab have a Middle Eastern and French background, they bring with them a cultural diversity which will prove to be enticing to the initially staid Walter. Tarek plays the African drums. It’s a world Walter quietly begins to embrace. Out go the classical CDs and in comes Tarek’s African jazz. Walter goes with them to a club in the evenings where Tarek plays. This world completely different from his own, offers him new stimulus and in some brilliant exchanges, he even takes up the drum himself. You can’t help but smile.

All seems well, as Tarek and Walter begin to hit it off but there is trouble ahead when Tarek gets arrested and Walter can only offer scant comfort to Tarek's mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass). There is a beautifully observed friendship which grows between them, when it becomes apparent that Tarek is an illegal immigrant. Post 9/11, Tarek’s imprisonment is going to pose a problem for his Syrian mother and the shy US professor separated from his drum guru who acts almost like a father, visiting Tarek everyday in the immigration centre.

The Visitor is carefully plotted, well edited and with totally believable performances throughout. It offers a healthily dispassionate and pleasantly critical view of a US immigration system shrouded in bureaucracy, secrecy and offering little sense of leeway or logic, which you feel was one of the things that director Tom McCarthy felt most bound to highlight.

In terms of performances, from the outset, Richard Jenkins is excellent as Walter. It takes you only a little time to understand the psyche of a repressed but highly intelligent College professor who has suppressed his emotions but is looking to change. Hiam Abbass (The Lemon Tree) and Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira also give able support.

The whole thing reminded me of another good film from the British director Pawel Pawlikowski, The Last Resort (2000) which was equally expressive as a film in that it highlighted the cold and harsh practices of British immigration centres and showed how the human angle gets lost when individuals are distrusted and not given an adequate chance to defend their rights and show what they have to offer.

DVD Extras

Audio Commentary with Director Tom McCarthy and actor Richard Jenkins
Behind-The-Scenes with The Visitor
Deleted Scenes (With commentary as well)
“Playing the Djembe” featurette
Theatrical trailer

Cat Number: UNA001DVD
Running Time: 103 minutes
Certificate: 12
Distributor: Unanimous Pictures