{"id":1709,"date":"2009-04-07T23:49:08","date_gmt":"2009-04-08T03:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2022-10-19T18:02:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T22:02:55","slug":"visitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/visitor\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone is Just Visiting in Thomas McCarthy’s The Visitor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Visitor<\/em> is the excellent sophomore effort from Thomas McCarthy, writer\/director of The Station Agent<\/em> (2003). The disgustingly talented McCarthy is also an accomplished actor, most recently appearing as a corporate espionage agent in Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity<\/em> and as a plagiarizing journalist in The Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a political science professor at Connecticut College. The recent widower has regressed into a willfully lonely state, having lost his social graces and merely coasting in his responsibilities. In one small way at least, he does seem to be trying to grow a little as the movie begins. He runs through a number of piano instructors, futilely attempting to pick up the instrument at an age he is counseled to not even try. We later learn that this effort is facing backwards and grasping at the past; his late wife was a concert pianist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Richard
Richard Jenkins and Haaz Sleiman in The Visitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Walter reluctantly travels to New York City to present a paper he nominally cowrote. He finds that his neglected vacant city apartment has been illegally sublet by a man named Ivan. This has the feel of a clue dropped for a future conflict – who is this Ivan with a key to his place, and will he return? But the plot point is never picked back up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His unexpected tenants are a young couple barely making a living in New York City as artists: Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian djembe player, and Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira), a Senegalese jewelry designer. The conscientious Walter balks at throwing them out and instead befriends them. Tarek begins to teach him to play the djembe, which he takes to more immediately than he ever did the piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My one complaint is that the character of Tarek is too sketchily drawn. He’s an implausibly decent and nice guy, without a hint of anything even remotely dark. Where are this very gregarious man’s other friends? Even the icy Zainab seems to have pals at the outdoors market where she sells her handmade jewelry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Richard
Richard Jenkins and Hiam Abbass in The Visitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The trio’s brief period of happiness is broken when Tarek is detained over a misunderstanding that incidentally reveals he and Zainab have both overstayed their visas. As Walter tries to aid his new friends, he finds himself plunged into the black hole of illegal immigration and Homeland Security. Tarek’s overprotective mother Mouma (Hiam Abbass) arrives, and Walter becomes her ambassador as they shuttle back and forth to a detention center in Queens (a borough the movie portrays unflatteringly). If finding new friends and an invigorating creative outlet had not already plunged Walter back into life, a budding romance with Mouma completes his new slate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Visitor<\/em> and The Station Agent<\/em> both manage to just barely skate the razor edge of sentimental cheese. Keeping the story of Walter’s emotional rehabilitation from being too corny is the worry that Walter is maybe a bit too desperate to ingratiate himself. Mouna understandably does a doubletake when she learns how much he is sacrificing to help Tarek, even though they have all known him for only a few days. Indeed, the perpetually nervous Zainab suspected his intentions from the very beginning — his aid would seem to be too good to be true were he not a man with a desperate hole in his life. Zainab’s distrust is the defensive stance of someone who knows she could be kicked out of her new home at any moment — xenophobia dressed up as combating terrorism. It’s all the more affecting when she finally melts and opens up to Walter and Mouna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any one of these characters could be the titular Visitor: Tarek, Zainab, and Mouna are, in the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security, at worst potential terrorists and at best temporary labor, no matter what they may have to offer. And Walter is a kind of visitor himself, with homes in Connecticut and New York but not truly living<\/em> in either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Visitor is the excellent sophomore effort from Thomas McCarthy, writer\/director of The Station Agent (2003). The disgustingly talented McCarthy is also an accomplished actor, most recently appearing as a corporate espionage agent in Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity and as a plagiarizing journalist in The Wire. Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a political science professor at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,2],"tags":[349,46,348,350,351,735,347],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4-stars","category-movies","tag-danai-jekesai-gurira","tag-drama","tag-haaz-sleiman","tag-hiam-abbass","tag-immigration","tag-richard-jenkins","tag-thomas-mccarthy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/visitor-feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sa9lhB-visitor","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5763,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ridley-scott-and-cormac-mccarthy-make-an-odd-couple-in-the-counselor\/","url_meta":{"origin":1709,"position":0},"title":"Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy make an odd couple in The Counselor","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Cormac McCarthy and Ridley Scott were bound to be an odd couple in any case. 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