February 7, 2009: The Visitor
I had heard about The Visitor for quite a while, and planned to see it, so it was great to see Richard Jenkins, a long-time character actor, get a Best Actor nomination and put this on my list to see before the end of February. Richard Jenkins has been around for decades, and has been in a bunch of well-known movies (he stands out most in my mind as Ben Stiller’s psychiatrist in There’s Something About Mary, sneaking out to bring back his lunch while Stiller is in the middle of a therapy session), but hasn’t really been treated as a leading man. He proves here that that is a real shame. Step Brothers was the last thing I recall seeing him in, but he’s been around for 35 years and has 85 IMDB entries.
This film first showed up on the festival circuit, and saw a limited theatrical release in spring 2008.
Anyway, The Visitor is about Walter, a university professor in Connecticut (played by Richard Jenkins), widowed some time ago, who is something of a loner and not really a people person. He is reluctantly sent to New York City to present a paper he officially co-authored but didn’t really write. He happens to maintain an apartment in the city, which he has had for a long time and presumably can keep because of rent control regulations, so we know that he has a history in the city and isn’t faced with the stress of finding an unfamiliar place to stay. However, when he gets there, he discovers a man and woman who have been living in his apartment for a couple of months! They leave once they realize that someone has illegitimately made the place available to them, but they have nowhere to go, so Walter invites them back until they get on their feet. They turn out to be illegal immigrants from Syria who are trying to get properly registered in the country, and Jenkins helps them with the administrative details, comes out of his shell in the process, and incidentally learns some real-life lessons related to the paper he is about to present.
This is a quiet and deliberate film, which builds its characters over a comfortable running time in a thoughtful way. People are portrayed as being generally understanding and compassionate, which is probably a much closer representation of reality than many of the story arcs seen in modern entertainment. It doesn’t fall into the typical trap of people meeting and falling in love, despite teetering briefly on the edge, and is all the better for it.
Walter researches and writes about economics in developing nations. As he spends time with his immigrant cohabitants, he sees the face of such economic struggles up close and hears real stories from real people. The man living with him is a drummer, who plays with a group of drummer/musicians in a park in New York City, and Walter eventually agrees to learn how to play these drums and tries playing with the group. This is in stark contrast to Walter’s colleagues, and until recently Walter himself, who are all white-bread academics totally isolated from the cultures they write about and about which they profess to be “experts”. It’s obviously a difficult thing for Walter to get to know new people, but it’s also clear that once he knows someone, he can be a great friend. He grows as a professional, and he knows it.
There’s also a strong suggestion of guilt, as Walter has this apartment which is empty most of the time, while others are struggling just to be allowed to enter the country and find a place to live. This is a big part of why he comes out of his shell and reignites his love of life, which appears to have been snuffed out leaving him rudderless following the death of his wife, who was also passionate about music.
The Visitor is highly recommended, a movie which doesn’t feel shackled to the conventions of Hollywood storytelling, and is rich and rewarding as a result. The plot is substantial but not overreaching, and the characters grow in such a way that you know there will be lasting differences. They have changed as a result of their experiences.
Thoughtful, intimate story; breaks from convention.
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