ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

AMERICA has always been the land of opportunity, welcoming wave after wave of foreign settlers desperate for their place in the land of boundless dreams.

The events of September 2001 may have changed that level of tolerance and welcome forever. The change provides the backdrop to The Visitor, a plaintive, humanist tale that tries to address the bigger picture through the story of one, solitary man.

Richard Jenkins has been a valuable supporting actor for years. He played the deceased father in television’s Six Feet Under. In The Visitor, he savours a rare leading role, playing Professor Walter Vale, a gruff widower who seems very much detached from the world around him.

He makes a rare visit to New York to speak at a conference and discovers that his flat has been occupied by illegal immigrants Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira).

He allows them to stay. A friendship develops as Tarek teaches Walter how to play the African djembe drum. Everything changes when Tarek is arrested. The Visitor is a delicately handled, quietly moving account of one man’s re-engagement with the world. It also underlines how much the peoples of the world can learn from each other and offers a sentimental reminder of America’s long tradition as a haven for the vulnerable and oppressed.

Director Tom McCarthy made the equally low-key and beguiling The Station Master and is fast becoming a reliable creator of thought-provoking, grown-up tales celebrating the complex workings of the human heart.

Nationwide release

Director: Tom McCarthy
Cast: Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira, Marian Seldes, Richard Kind
Screenwriters: Tom McCarthy
Certificate: 15
Running time: 106 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2007

© Allan Hunter, 2008