Finally got around to seeing The Visitor at the Laemmle Colorado 7 theaters in Pasadena this week.The Visitor is the second film written and directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent). It stars Richard Jenkins of Six Feet Under fame, Arab hottie Haaz Sleiman, Hiam Abbass and Danai Gurira.
Mad Professah caught the trailer for The Visitor a few months ago and immediately noticed that my favorite Arab actor Haaz Sleiman was in it.
After watching it, I noticed that it has been getting amazing reviews from major newspapers like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and has a 91% rating at rottentomatoes.com.
And I agree (mostly). The performance by Richard Jenkins is Oscar-worthy. There are, however, some issues I take with the script.
The story deals with a lonely Connecticut College economics professor who recently lost his wife. He goes to New York City for a conference and discovers an African-Arab couple (Sleiman and Gurira) living in his long-dormant apartment. It turns out that the couple are both undocumented immigrants and through an unfortunate series of events the vagaries and indignities of the U.S. immigration law and policies come into focus. That's not the part of the script that I have a problem with.
The problematical part of the script is the ending (which is a downer) as well as a slightly odd inclusion of a surprising budding romance between two of the characters. However, the overall impact of the film is quite strong and it is definitely a moving and memorable cinematic experience, mostly due to Jenkins performance and Sleiman's infectious good looks.
GRADE: A-.
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