Bang-Up Job Not Being Done By Homeland Security The Visitor' Review...
Posted on April 19, 2008 - 2:24am by michael
"All work and no play, that's the way it is, ain't it?
There's a rhythm deep inside of you, and you must get reacquainted..."
-Gnarles Barkley, "The Last Time"
Richard Jenkins has turned in one of the most subdued but powerful performances that I've ever seen in
The Visitor. His performance for about 98% of the film is almost entirely emotionless, but it's the subtlety of his performance that makes it so special. He's a college professor named Walter Jenkins who lives in Connecticut and who has traveled to New York to attend a conference, but when he keys into the apartment that he keeps in the city, which he hasn't visited in a long time, he finds two people living in it who turn out to be illegal immigrants from Senegal.
A tense confrontation leads to Walter calmly asking them to leave, but then he changes his mind when he discovers that they have nowhere to go, and he agrees to let them stay. All we know about Walter at this point is that he's a college professor, he's in New York to present a paper that he attached his name to as a favor but hasn't read and thus isn't prepared to present it anyway, and he's trying to achieve some kind of musical skill. One of the earliest scenes shows Walter confused by a strange piano lesson, after which he informs the teacher that he won't be continuing his lessons.
He doesn't give a reason, just an almost blank stare. This is a man who has suffered the loss of his wife and is searching for something to fill that void.
The development of the friendship between Walter and the two people living in his apartment, who are Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira), is uniquely presented and one of the best parts of the film. There are no cheesy moments, just a formal interaction between a man and two people who barely know him, until Tarek begins to give Walter brief lessons on how to use the African drum. Walter is unsure but notices immediate improvement, and you can almost feel his joy that he's able to do something musical.
There's a turning point in the middle of the movie where it turns sharply and continues in a very different direction.
Tarek is stopped by authorities at a subway station and, even though he didn't do anything wrong, taken to a detention center where he is kept indefinitely while an investigation is performed into his background. At this point, Tarek's mother enters the picture, and she, Walter, and Zainab embark on a suffering quest to try to get him back.
But the movie is not about illegal immigrants or about the incompetence or inefficiency of the modern American anti-terrorism infrastructure. It's about the complexity of operating a society that has suffered catastrophic terrorist attacks and is determined to prevent another one. Walter and Tarek's mother visit an immigration attorney at one point in the movie, and he tells them that since 9/11 things are not so simple. You either belong in the U.S. or you don't, and whether you're a good person or a bad person or have done the slightest thing wrong makes no difference. The more we get to know about Tarek, the less certain we are about everything.
The development of the characters and the arc of their change are some of the most powerful in any movie in 2008, and it will be something of a shame if Richard Jenkins is overlooked at Oscar time for his performance.
He gives a flawless portrayal of a man dealing with the loss of his wife and who is now really experiences genuine feelings for the first time since then. The juxtaposition of that atmosphere of loss with his gleeful achievement of a new friend who has taught him something that finally brings joy to his life allows us to easily empathize with him.
The Visitor is a rare breed of drama. It directly approaches terrorism and the protection of our homeland, two of the most sensitive topics in recent American history, in highly political times and yet manages to get us to leave the theater thinking about complex performances and a difficult world rather than who it was that screwed up and caused the problems that the movie deals with. Like the best movies, it doesn't presume to give us answers about life, but to show us that they are never as simple as we hope.
The Bean Meter
[caption id="attachment_22445" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="5 Beans out of 5."]
[/caption]
Richard Jenkins has turned in one of the most subdued but powerful performances that I've ever seen in The Visitor. His performance for about 98% of the film is almost entirely emotionless, but it's the subtlety of his performance that makes it so special. He's a college professor named Walter Jenkins who lives in Connecticut and who has traveled to New York to attend a conference, but when he keys into the apartment that he keeps in the city, which he hasn't visited in a long time, he finds two people living in it who turn out to be illegal immigrants from Senegal.
A tense confrontation leads to Walter calmly asking them to leave, but then he changes his mind when he discovers that they have nowhere to go, and he agrees to let them stay. All we know about Walter at this point is that he's a college professor, he's in New York to present a paper that he attached his name to as a favor but hasn't read and thus isn't prepared to present it anyway, and he's trying to achieve some kind of musical skill. One of the earliest scenes shows Walter confused by a strange piano lesson, after which he informs the teacher that he won't be continuing his lessons. 
He doesn't give a reason, just an almost blank stare. This is a man who has suffered the loss of his wife and is searching for something to fill that void.
The development of the friendship between Walter and the two people living in his apartment, who are Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira), is uniquely presented and one of the best parts of the film. There are no cheesy moments, just a formal interaction between a man and two people who barely know him, until Tarek begins to give Walter brief lessons on how to use the African drum. Walter is unsure but notices immediate improvement, and you can almost feel his joy that he's able to do something musical.
There's a turning point in the middle of the movie where it turns sharply and continues in a very different direction. 
Tarek is stopped by authorities at a subway station and, even though he didn't do anything wrong, taken to a detention center where he is kept indefinitely while an investigation is performed into his background. At this point, Tarek's mother enters the picture, and she, Walter, and Zainab embark on a suffering quest to try to get him back.
But the movie is not about illegal immigrants or about the incompetence or inefficiency of the modern American anti-terrorism infrastructure. It's about the complexity of operating a society that has suffered catastrophic terrorist attacks and is determined to prevent another one. Walter and Tarek's mother visit an immigration attorney at one point in the movie, and he tells them that since 9/11 things are not so simple. You either belong in the U.S. or you don't, and whether you're a good person or a bad person or have done the slightest thing wrong makes no difference. The more we get to know about Tarek, the less certain we are about everything.
The development of the characters and the arc of their change are some of the most powerful in any movie in 2008, and it will be something of a shame if Richard Jenkins is overlooked at Oscar time for his performance. 
He gives a flawless portrayal of a man dealing with the loss of his wife and who is now really experiences genuine feelings for the first time since then. The juxtaposition of that atmosphere of loss with his gleeful achievement of a new friend who has taught him something that finally brings joy to his life allows us to easily empathize with him.
The Visitor is a rare breed of drama. It directly approaches terrorism and the protection of our homeland, two of the most sensitive topics in recent American history, in highly political times and yet manages to get us to leave the theater thinking about complex performances and a difficult world rather than who it was that screwed up and caused the problems that the movie deals with. Like the best movies, it doesn't presume to give us answers about life, but to show us that they are never as simple as we hope.
The Bean Meter
[caption id="attachment_22445" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="5 Beans out of 5."]
[/caption] 
