In 1999, shortly after the release of "The Matrix," Britain's venerable film journal Sight & Sound published an editorial proclaiming the soon-to-come end of humanistic cinema. With the new heights of realism and spectacle achieved by computer-generated imagery, the article reasoned, and the desire for simplified narrative to reach worldwide audiences, fewer and fewer films about nuanced, believable characters in real-life situations would be made. Oh sure, there'd still be the odd Mike Leigh or Ken Loach mining that vein of intimate drama and neorealism to the bitter end, but the writing was on the wall. The editorial was striking, articulate, prophetic and, of course, completely wrong.
As with popular music and video games, our age of globalization, readily accessible high-end technology and internet distribution has made the world of filmmaking much, much bigger and much, much smaller simultaneously. Not only that, but these technological forces have made it easier than ever before for the smallest to compete with the biggest for audience, critical attention and even dollars.
In the world of video games this has meant annual "Call of Duty" and "Madden Football" sequels and personal, inventive gems made by tiny teams (or single creators) like "Fez" or "Gone Home." For film this has meant that micro-budgeted films as diverse as "Once" or "Paranormal Activities" have been able to take the world by storm even as "Harry Potter" and "Iron Man" sequels continue to thrive. And even as the latter keep breaking their own records to become the highest-grossing films ever made, the world of small, humanistic films, like "The Visitor" is alive and well.
In "The Visitor," Richard Jenkins, a superb character actor who has been on the New York scene for over 30 years now, takes center stage as Walter Vale, an uptight professor going through the motions at a college in Connecticut. Forced by his department to present a paper at a conference in New York City, he returns to the apartment he owned there with his deceased wife, only to discover that it has been unofficially 'subrented' by a third party to Tarek (played by Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira, who would go on to fame as Michonne in AMC's "The Walking Dead"). They are a young creative couple (he a player of West African drums, she a bracelt and earring maker) who are also illegal immigrants. After the initial shock of discovering each other, Walter and Tarek form a bond with Walter allowing the couple to stay at his place and Tarek teaching Walter how to play the djembe and taking him out to his drum circle and professional gigs.
The beginning of this beautiful friendship is cut short, though, by Tarek's accidental apprehension on the subway and consequent discovery of his illegal status in the country. Tarek is moved to a detention center in Queens, a place which neither Zainab nor Tarek's family can visit for fear of being detained themselves. With the threat of deportation facing Tarek, Walter decides to step up, visiting Tarek regularly, passing on messages from his loved ones and hiring an immigration lawyer to fight Tarek's case. Eventually word of his detention reaches Tarek's mother who, against Tarek's wishes, travels to New York to be as close as she can to her son, while forming a real bond with Walter.
If you had to shoe-horn "The Visitor" into a particular genre, I suppose you could call it a slice-of-life drama - although its impact is more joyous and emotionally satisfying than that might imply. Director Tom McCarthy (working from his own script) does a great job of creating characters we really care about, supported by universally excellent performances from all four leads - in particular from awkward but likeable Jenkins and gregarious extrovert Sleiman, who are a terrific odd couple. Starting slowly, McCarthy crafts a story that, following Tarek's detention, becomes more and more involving with real emotion that never descends into miserabilism or sentimentality.
This film definitely touched a nostalgic nerve in me, as it is an excellently textured portrayal of the real New York City - as well as being the kind of low-but-not-no-budget indie I have worked on as a Line Producer (it even has a lovely cameo appearance by Laith Nakli, one of my frequent - and favorite - collaborators). Even beyond that very personal appeal, I really respected the way that Tom McCarthy told a story that was so different from the quirky-white-people-with-introspective-personal-problems that has become indie cliche, without being preachy or heavy-handed.
From the first ten minutes I thought I knew exactly where the film was going and I was happy to be wrong. Beyond the original conceit of Tarek and Walter's meeting (not that hard to imagine given New York real estate practices, actually...), this is a story that always feels authentically driven by its characters and the social forces they interact with."The Visitor" is a great reminder of everything that's most awesome about human beings, while never letting us forget the bigger social realities that also shape our lives in ways that are not always fair or in keeping with who we are and who we want to be.
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