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The VisitorDirector Thomas McCarthy's debut movie The Station Agent concerned a dwarf running an abandoned rail office in New Jersey, so the possibilities are endless when it comes to his follow up. The Visitor may sound like a soapbox preach on a contentious issue but is more like a US remake of 'One Foot In The Grave'.
Richard Jenkins stars as Walter Vale, a grouchy, widowed academic whose sour credentials are established early on when he decides he's not going to take any patronising back-chat from a piano teacher and refuses to accept late assignments from students claiming they have 'personal issues' to deal with.
Ordered to attend a New York conference and present a paper he was barely involved in writing, Vale huffs off to his vacation apartment and is surprised to find a naked black lady, Zainab (Gurira), enjoying a soak in his bath tub. After fast-talking his way out of a beating from Zainab's understandably miffed boyfriend Tarek (Sleiman), Vale discovers his apartment has been let out to the two immigrants by a dodgy landlord.
Deciding he can't leave the couple wandering the mean streets, Walter allows them to stay and swiftly strikes up a friendship with the jovial Tarek, learning drumming techniques from the young musician and generally unwinding from his uptight lifestyle.
This might sound asinine but it's really rather jolly - it's fun seeing Walter defrost and the sight of this balding, suit-and-tie guy getting in touch with his inner rhythm provides some guilt-free laughs, as does Walter being oblivious to Zainab's frosty attitude as he enthusiastically starts attending jazz clubs with the couple.
This odd melding of About Schmidt and You, Me And Dupree turns serious when Tarek is carted off to a detention centre leaving Walter to provide support, find a lawyer and assure Tarek's visiting mother, Mouna (Abbass), that something can be done about the situation. This second half of the film sees Walter go from burgeoning jazzy hep-cat to outraged moral citizen and understated Lothario as he carries out a stealth pursuit of Mouna, but the film's tone remains consistent.
It would be easy to criticise the film for simplifying a complex issue to a level of 'illegal immigrants are just fine so long as they're cheering up middle-class anal retentives through their crazy ethnic drumming', but the aim is to remind us that there's a human story behind all internments. If we get an entertaining movie along the way, so much the better.
The four leads all give winning portrayals without grandstanding. Jenkins in particular knows exactly how to reign in his performance of a man undergoing rapid change, while the gregarious Sleiman is immensely likable.
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