Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
5/23/08
As
film buffs, we're encouraged to subscribe to a heavy duty Auteur theory
that suggests every director is as much the author of his films as a novelist
or a painter of their respective works. But the truth is that more
often than not, the director is more akin to the editor of a magazine,
presiding over the work of dozens of other artists, always nudging his
project in the right direction when it threatens to go off track.
Then there are times when you see a really unique movie, think “Hmmm...
that was really unique”, and then see exactly the same uniqueness again
from a different movie from the same director and say “Whoa! Auteur
alert!” Such is the experience I had at The Visitor, the second
feature written and directed by actor Tom McCarthy. It's got a ton
in common with his first, The Station Agent, from its' hyper-deliberate
pace and minimal dialog to its' emphasis on the bonding of a socially awkward
hero to unlikely friends and its' choice of an improbable leading man.
There's a lot more going on in The Visitor, but it achieves its'
goals with the same tools: put two people together in a room long
enough and they're actually going to get to know each other. And
that changes everything.
Walter
Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a tenured college professor and writer, but his
life is almost completely devoid of joy. His wife is dead, he eats
his meals alone, teaches a single class from a syllabus with last year's
date replaced with this year's, and tells people on the phone that he's
writing while we see only wallpaper on his computer. Random chance
forces him to travel to New York City to present a paper he “co-authored”
in name only at a conference, allowing him to spend a few nights in the
apartment he still owns where he and his wife used to live. Much
to his surprise, the apartment is occupied, by Syrian immigrant Tarek (Haaz
Sleiman) and his girlfriend Zainab, who's from Senegal. The couple
was tricked by a third party into “renting” an apartment he didn't own,
and apologetically leave with all their stuff. Walter finds a photo
they left behind and follows to give it to them, only to find that they
have nowhere to go. So he lets them come back and stay for a few
days, giving him a rare chance to speak to someone. Better still,
Tarek is a musician, playing the drums. Walter's wife was a concert
pianist and he's tried to learn the piano out of a certain duty, but finds
that he's really meant to be a drummer. He spends less and less time
at the conference, instead watching the street musicians outside, and finally
travels with Tarek to join a group of drummers in a park. On the
trip back, the Syrian gets stuck in a turnstile in the subway and is flagged
down by police. They run his name and find that he's in the country
illegally. Trapped within the immigration system, Tarek is held in
a converted warehouse where his only contact with the outside world is
daily visits from Walter, who keeps coming up with new excuses not to go
home. Soon, Tarek's mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) has arrived from Michigan
but she, like Zainab, is also illegal and cannot help. Walter secures
a lawyer (Amir Arison), but struggles to get a hearing for his friend in
the face of a system that sees no need to treat unpopular immigrants like
anything other than terrorists.
When
it comes to immigration, The Visitor makes its' points with a simple
conceit: how shocking is it to see people treated with such total
lack of concern for their dignity while there's a sympathetic white man
in the room? The system the movie depicts exists only because we're
NOT looking: whatever your views on immigration, there's really no
defense for the lack of due process or Guantanamo-Lite warehousing that's
on display. If America is doing the right thing by these visitors,
why must we do so like insects cowering under a rock? Of course,
it becomes harder to enforce zero tolerance immigration policies if one
learns what Walter does: that whether they should be in the United
States or not, the people who arrive here illegally are... <gasp> people,
with loved ones, dreams and hobbies just like you and me. This
is not to say that the movie has an answer to our immigration conundrum
(I know I don't either...), but it makes intriguing points about the need
for transparency in the process.
Even
if the immigration angle doesn't float your boat (and truth be told, the
movie does probably underline its' points a few more times than it needs
to after making them), The Visitor gets a lot of non-political mileage
out of the extreme culture shock of mixing the quiet old white guy in with
a group of immigrants. What makes it sing is the way Jenkins plays
Walter's reaction to just about everything his time with the Khalils throws
his way. The old Walter Vale life was totally played out, and he's
just happy to have ANYTHING different come his way, whether it's becoming
a street musician or briefly manning Zainab's custom jewelry stand at a
public market (“It's all hand-made,” he proudly tells his customers).
Watching his interaction with people who have no reason to enforce the
rut into which he'd settled is really a treat.
I've
really enjoyed Jenkins in a lot of supporting roles the last few years,
from his extroverted detective in Shall We Dance? to the quiet miner
who learned to respect his daughter in North Country, in which he
delivered a show-stopping speech that was one of the cinematic highlights
of 2005. At the age of 60 he finally has his first leading role,
and gives it his all. When we first meet him, Walter isn't just sad,
it's like he's running on his energy-saving low power mode. Even
once he's emerged from his shell, this is still a man to whom social interaction
does not come easily, and his faux pas can be quite revealing. Best
of all is the way he shows you the music in Walter's soul begging to come
out once he discovers the vessel to release it. His hands twitch,
beating invisible drums all the time, even while the man himself remains
placid and detached. It's like his hands are the mirror to his soul.
Sleiman has a challenge as well, to make us look past the cinematic baggage
of his ethnicity to see Tarek as “just folks”, and he excels, making it
all the more shocking when his detention begins to take its' toll (also
quietly pointing toward the danger than an inhumane immigration system
imports the American Dream and exports Anti-American hatred). There's
a ton of authenticity to the quiet distance Gurira keeps from this man
who's so utterly helpful to people he shouldn't care about at all, and
Abbass does a great job of letting her defenses be broken down by the same
thing.
McCarthy's
style is both an asset an a hindrance to both of his movies: the
world of lonely people detached from society is of little interest to mainstream
cinema and his laudable attention to these characters requires him to set
a tone that reflects the sad quiet of their own lives. But once it
pulls you in, that tone also keeps us from getting too close once the characters
start to connect. I had a great deal of affection for The Station
Agent, and I also enjoyed The Visitor, but they are movies that
held me at an arm's length even as I appreciated their strengths.
But the man knows how to set a mood, and is a fine writer of anti-dialog,
bringing to life characters who don't do a lot of talking. There
too he's got a great eye for actors, and both movies are impeccably performed
from top to bottom.
I had
to catch The Visitor at an out of the way art house, and it's not
a movie that's likely to cross over into the mainstream. It's quiet,
raises at least as many questions as it answers, and as a viewing experience,
it's kinda shy. But for those who treasure the subtle nuances of
fine acting, are interested in the challenges we face trying to come to
terms with the millions who live illegally within our borders, or are simply
able to relate to a sad old man just looking for that one bit of human
contact that will give him purpose again, it definitely has its' rewards.
And if you loved The Station Agent, run, don't walk, because you
don't see A Film By Tom McCarthy every day. |
