Were Stanley Kramer alive today, he would have loved Tom McCarthy's The Visitor. Indeed, it resembles many of the Big Issue films of the mid-twentieth century.
The Visitor follows Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins), a dour, detached college professor at a conference in New York City. When he discovers his apartment has been rented to two "illegals," Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Denai Jekesai Gurira), he allows the couple to stay. Ultimately, they develop a friendship based on Walter's desire to learn the drums, an instrument on which Tarek is a virtuoso. However, Tarek is wrongfully arrested and is sent into detention for illegal aliens, at which point his mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), and Richard must try to free him.
In spite of the undeniable importance of their message, Big Issue films have a tendency to come off as top-heavy beneath their self-righteous indignation. In some regards, The Visitor falls into this trap - most notably in its somewhat heavy-handed, wholesale absolution of detainees. In other ways, however, The Visitor soars. Richard Jenkins offers a brilliant performance as Walter, perfectly betraying his sensitivity, frustration and forlornness with a placid demeanor of obvious brittleness.
Moreover, the interplay between Walter and Mouna defies cliché. Despite some of the expected romantic tension, their relationship flourishes on a much more emotionally-fraught level. In addition, the unexpected shift in the film's focus from the rejuvenation of a depressive through music to a political polemic wonderfully evokes the vicissitudes of real life: that which connects us can also tear us apart.
The Visitor, much like its evident forebear, Costa-Gavra's Missing, is not about politics per se. Rather, the beauty of these films is their exploration of the ways in which the harsh realities of our world can change us and our relationships in ways we might seldom expect.
