The Visitor (2007/I)

Regista:

Thomas McCarthy

Sceneggiatore:

Thomas McCarthy (screenplay)

Data di uscita:

18 aprile 2008 (USA)

Genere:

Comedy | Drama

Slogan:

Connection is everything

Plot:

A college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.

Premi:

3 wins

Recensioni degli utenti:

Works as a metaphor for Americans reaching out

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Richard Jenkins	...	Walter Vale
Haaz Sleiman	...	Tarek Khalil
Danai Jekesai Gurira	...	Zainab (as Danai Gurira)
Hiam Abbass	...	Mouna Khalil
Marian Seldes	...	Barbara
Maggie Moore	...	Karen
Michael Cumpsty	...	Charles
Bill McHenry	...	Darin
Richard Kind	...	Jacob
Tzahi Moskovitz	...	Zev
Amir Arison	...	Mr. Shah
Neal Lerner	...	Martin Revere
Ramon Fernandez	...	Cop #1
Frank Pando	...	Cop #2
Waleed Zuaiter	...	Omar

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Durata:

Canada:103 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | USA:108 min

Nazionalità:

USA

Lingua:

Inglese

Colore:

Colore

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonoro:

Dolby Digital

Divieti:

Canada:PG | USA:PG-13

Luoghi delle riprese:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Groundswell Productions

Colonna sonora:

Salsera

Works as a metaphor for Americans reaching out

Illegal immigration has been a prominent subject of conversation in U.S. politics this year with discussion ranging from thoughtful proposals for comprehensive reform to demagogic calls for mass deportation of millions of undocumented workers. To some, it is only a logistical problem, not a moral or humane one. To his credit, Thomas McCarthy's second feature The Visitor allows us to see the human face of the issue without becoming bogged down in the usual stereotypes and fear mongering and it becomes a powerful indictment of a fear-based policy that no longer serves the public interest. The power of the film's message is somewhat diluted, however, by a facile and unmotivated "movie" turnaround that seems more plot-derived than an event springing form the lifeblood of the character.

Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins), an Economics Professor at an unnamed Connecticut university, goes through the motions of his daily routine, listlessly teaching an Economics course from a syllabus that he hasn't updated in fifteen years. Doing his best Bob Newhart interpretation, Jenkins establishes Vale's credentials as a bona fide jerk early in the film. He dismisses a piano teacher after one lesson (his fourth such firing), refuses to accept a student's late paper without considering the personal circumstances involved, and rejects a colleague's request to read a paper he co-wrote as a fill-in for an ailing fellow professor until he is forced to do so by the college administration.

When Walter returns to New York for the conference and enters his apartment after a long absence, he is shocked to discover that an unscrupulous real estate agent has sublet it to an African woman and her Syrian boyfriend. The uninvited guests, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a musician who plays the African drum at jazz clubs in the area and Zainab (Danai Guirra), his Senegalese girl friend, who sells her own jewelry at street markets. Though the couple offer to leave immediately, Walter, in a sudden turn from the character arc previously nurtured, invites them to stay with him in his apartment while he attends the conference.

Though Zainab remains aloof, Tarek's outgoing personality and his good will seems to make a dent in Walter's impenetrable armor and before you can say "gott im himmel", Walter is learning how to play the African drum, joining an outdoor drum circle in Central Park, and listening to Tarek's band performing at a jazz club. It's quite a stretch but, as Tarek tells Walter in his first drum lesson "thinking just screws it up". As the two slowly develop a friendship, an unfortunate event turns the film in a more serious direction. On the way home from a performance, Tarek is arrested in the subway for allegedly jumping a turnstile and sent to a detention center in Queens where he is held for possible deportation due to his status as an undocumented immigrant.

As Zainab moves in with a relative, Walter hires an immigration lawyer and visits Tarak daily. When Tarak's mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) comes to the apartment from Michigan looking for her son whom she hadn't heard from in five days, Walter invites her to stay with him and the two form a deep connection. They visit Tarak at the detention center, talk with Zainab in the marketplace, and see the sights of New York including, of course, the Statue of Liberty. As events move toward a powerful and surprising resolution, Walter becomes more expressive and open hearted in his fight for Tarak's right to remain in the U.S.

The Visitor succeeds in making people aware of the problems faced by undocumented workers who, in this case only through carelessness in taking care of paperwork, have become labeled as undesirable and a threat to the country they have come to admire and want to contribute to. The film works well both as a political statement and also as a metaphor for Americans reaching out and becoming more sensitive to the problems of third-world people. However, as a character study of a man who is transformed from a dispirited and aloof college professor into a drum playing social activist, eager to be accepted as "cool", The Visitor lacks the ring of truth and ultimately becomes just another quirky assembly line charmer.